General Debate 05 June 2023

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Mike

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Happy World Environment Day!
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June 5, 2023 8:01am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  God save the King!
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:20am
Captain Mainwaring

DAME Jacinda bloody Ardern……
I think I’m going to be sick.
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June 5, 2023 8:01am
- edhunter
  
  If it was an anomaly and DJA had been offered the honour when no previous PM had then sure have a bitch and a moan, but when it is literally a perk of the job why lose any sleep over it?
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:26am
  - David Garrett
    
    ed: Perhaps because as an avowed communist – anyone who believes she has really changed her view is an idiot – she ought to be adamantly opposed to receiving any such honour.
    
    Much as I dislike and despise Clark, accepting a gong was one thing she never did.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:50am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Helen Clark, ONZ? That Helen Clark?
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:52am
    - Mike
      
      accepting a gong was one thing she never did
      
      I despair at the number of people, especially those who might be expected to be familiar with politics, who get this one wrong.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_New_Zealand
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:59am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I think the ONZ is going the way of an NCEA qualification…
        
        no-one in the rest of the World knows or cares.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:25am
      - I remember when
        
        Order of New zealand:
        Does the fact that only one of the sixteen present members is listed as a business man reveal a weakness?
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:38am
  - Dougal10
    
    I see this as a squirrel moment, it is a rushed appointment to drag the recent negativity away from hipkins and tinniti.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:04am
- Gaetano
  
  It was inevitable.
  
  I love this 🙂 …
  
  ““I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgement. So many of the things we went through as a nation over the last five years were about all of us rather than one individual,” ”
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/132203175/queen-camilla-and-dame-jacinda-ardern-recognised-in-king-charles-birthday-and-coronation-honours
  
  I find it hard to believe she considered turning it down. Of course the irony is that history will judge her as the worst PM in New Zealand history. Failed to deliver on any of her key objectives (housing/poverty). Promised transparency. Delivered the exact opposite.
  
  BTW did anyone find this a little odd?
  
  “Camilla was appointed as an additional Member of the Order of New Zealand for her services to New Zealand in support of King Charles III and his relationship with the country…”
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:31am
  - Cassandra
    
    Re the Queen, no – not odd at all, quite normal. One of the characteristics of an honours system. But as well as the routine awards eg former PMs are routinely offered, only Clark and Bolger have declined, there are dozens of worthy citizens recognised for service to their community. Plus of course public servants to whom these awards are pretty much part of the wallpaper.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:36am
    - Mike
      
      Clark and Bolger did not decline awards. They were both appointed to our highest honour, the Order of New Zealand.
      There is a bit of confusion about this, as some misguided people seem to think that only titular honours count as being prestigious.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:42am
      - Cassandra
        
        Correction: I meant declined knighthoods. Of course they accepted honours and every other perk.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:35am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Bolger like Clark and Ardern is an avowed Republican, so it would have been hypocritical of him to accept a knighthood as well as the Order of NZ.
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:00am
      - Jack5
        
        Spud Bolger’s republican view likely came from his Irish heritage.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:14am
      - kowtow
        
        Jack5
        
        I’d warrant far more Irishmen served the Crown in uniform than ever fought against it.
        
        “The 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, along with the Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Hampshire Regiment, landed at V Beach off a steam collier called the SS River Clyde. Sides had been cut out of the Clyde and the landing plan was for the Clyde to be beached and that the 2000 men inside her would run down wooden gangways onto pontoons that had been dragged near the shore alongside the ship. From the pontoons the men would jump onto the beach and advance inland to fight the Turks. Machine gun fire would cover the men coming ashore. But it all went wrong. The German commander advising with the Turks, General Von Sanders, knew that Cape Helles was a vitally important part of the peninsula to defend so he had heavily defended it with barbed wire under the water, and along the ridge he placed more wire and machine-gun placements. The Dubs, Munsters and Hampshires did not stand a chance.”
        
        https://www.dublin-fusiliers.com/ships/clyde.html
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:14pm
  - Swifty
    
    Nauseating, but totally predictable from her.
    
    Never miss a chance to polish the halo.
    
    Just more words and no action.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:47am
  - CJames
    
    Part of her accolade was for her work on child poverty. I gather that was because she created it.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:56am
    - Prince
      
      Yes that stuck in my craw also. No problems with the Chch shootings and even the pandemic (she played her role well), although I’m sure the latter will upset many here.
      But she achieved virtually nothing with regards to Child Poverty, and probably entrenched many families further into the welfare quicksand.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:10am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Prince – not sure I understand your comment, are you saying you admire Ardern’s actions durin the covid era? Or are you pointing out she was a fraud and it was a role she was playing, like an actor in a play?
        
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        June 5, 2023 9:36am
      - Taieri
        
        But she achieved virtually nothing with regards to Child Poverty
        —————-
        
        Has she achieved anything at all? Apart from the honorary doctorate and damehood?
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:36am
      - Prince
        
        Clan, I admired her dedication and ability to communicate during that period. I didn’t particularly like her message or the strategy behind it.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:38am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I picked her as the biggest political fraud I’ve ever seen in my life within a few weeks of her appearing on the scene.
        I had met her in person briefly, within 20 seconds of that encounter I knew she was a fake. She didn’t disappoint.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:54am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Taieri – “she achieved virtually nothing with regards to child poverty”.
        
        Wrong. She made it worse!!
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:51am
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Prince – admiring her dedication and communication is somewhat akin to admiring the skill of Goebbels.
        
        My perception is much more like Clans – she was the Queen of Pantomime and Fakery. Putting on the headscarf for Chch, Maori cloaks for state functions, then the relentless Podiums of truth, but I think the one that really took the cake for me was getting wrapped in a Pacific island floor covering to apologise for the actions of Governments in the 70’s trying to deal with overstayers. This from a women incapable of giving a personal apology.
        
        I’m glad this narcissist has departed our parliament. Unfortunately I think she will keep playing the Queen of Woke role internationally for far too long.
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:00pm
  - mandk
    
    If it was about all of us, shouldn’t we all get a Knighthood or Damehood?
    
    It’s very selfish of her to keep it all to herself.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:07am
  - John Loveridge
    
    Jacinda Ardern would not know humility if it hit her in the face. For her information, she can find it in the dictionary, not far from hubris.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:26am
  - rouppe
    
    She was never going to turn it down.
    
    She’s being honoured particularly for “her leadership” during the Christchurch terror attack and covid.
    
    Well, in hindsight, that “terror attack” wasn’t a terrorist event, it was a murderous rampage by an unhinged individual. The actual response was done by police officers on the day and that was over by the end of the afternoon. All Ardern did was some hugs, and criminalising law abiding and innocent gun owners. That automatic weapons are still routinely used and found shows the confiscation hasn’t worked.
    
    Her covid response was excessive and unnecessary. Putting the entire country under house arrest was an over reaction that led to some of the huge borrowing we are facing. Her government didn’t use that time to bolster health system capacity and disconnected a whole generation from learning.
    
    Now we have huge debt, a collapsing health system, and 50% of kids not in school.
    
    How that disastrous legacy can be honoured is beyond me
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:53am
    - Jack5
      
      One part of Ardern’s generally commendable work after the mosques massacres was her flaunting of the hijab as a symbol.
      
      She even had a few policewomen copying her.
      
      But now the hijab is a symbol of the oppression of women in Iran. If a woman not wearing a hijab is caught driving a car, her vehicle is being seized by the Government.
      
      The hijab was a symbol of female oppression in Turkey a century ago, and was banned by Attaturk. Its return is a symbol of tighter Islamic controls on women.
      
      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/05/islamic-republic-of-iran-to-impound-cars-of-women-caught-not-wearing-hijab
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:21am
      - Mike
        
        Wearing by choice is okay with you, I hope.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:30am
      - Jack5
        
        Yes, Milky, you may wear the hijab. No problem in NZ.
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:14pm
      - rouppe
        
        @mike if the choice truly is “wear it, or don’t wear it”.
        
        Because “wear it or we confiscate your car”, or “wear it or we’ll imprison and beat you” are, on the face of it, also choices, but not ones anyone should be faced with
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:17pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Mike – is that like being free to chose to have a medical treatment — that our Medsafe wouldn’t sign off as there was insufficient safety data — but if you don’t get it you will lose your job, your freedom of movement and association.
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:03pm
- Cassandra
  
  It’s normal. We can now call her a dame without getting the wokery in a tizz.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:43am
  - Dougal10
    
    I see what you did there .
    
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    June 5, 2023 1:25pm
- MCōs
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Well you just be sick then
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:48am
- lastmanstanding
  
  Two faced ( you fill in the blanks). Shes a republican like Clark. Clark would have been offered a Damehood and would have refused. At least Clark stood by her republican principles. Not Ardern. Reminds me of Groucho Marx.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:05am
  - Mike
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Helen Clark was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to the Order of New Zealand, our country’s highest honour. Before that, she received at least two other royal honours.
    She was certainly no fan of the titular honours, and supporting the replacement of the monarchy by a republic does not require anyone to reject honours granted under the present system.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:37am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      ‘supporting the replacement of the monarchy by a republic does not require anyone to reject honours granted under the present system’
      
      Apart from personal integrity, of course.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:55am
      - Mike
        
        I happen to disagree. As an analogy, disagreeing with some laws doesn’t mean I ignore them, although some people might as a matter of principle.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:02am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @Milky: that analogy is an egregious non-sequitur, even by your admittedly low standards.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:18am
      - Jack5
        
        😃Milky’s statement of the year (10.02 post): I happen to disagree.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:28am
    - Paulus
      
      All such awards are given by the Sovereign, but on the recommendation of the Prime Minister – little chippy, as part of her and his deal when she ran away from the mess she has left.
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:24am
    - Cassandra
      
      She did away with knighthoods, not honours.
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:38am
  - Rusty
    
    @last…
    
    Also Helen Clark married her partner but Ardern is still waiting for the right time..
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:50am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Yes, a long, successful and sincere marriage //
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:19am
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      They are both troubled by the Nanny state though.
      
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      June 5, 2023 2:05pm
- Paulus
  
  Agreed, I am totally disgusted in this move from Ardern, who told little boy from the Hutt, as part of their deal when she ran away.
  She is delusional.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:11am
- greenfinger
  
  The self professed Republican? Hmmm. More like the self confessed Communist, Comrade Ardern!
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:12am
- Rich Prick
  
  If the honours ever meant something, they mean nothing now. Even a quitter, having achieved noting positive, and destroyed the country, gets one these days.
  
  *Slow clap*
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:17am
  - Dougal10
    
    I agree , the NZ honors are now completely meaningless with this throw of the labour dice.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:42am
  - Matt Long
    
    https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/tremain-archaeology-lecture
    Tremain is also impressed by Ardern.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:44am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    I totally agree Giving her and Bloomfield honours and Mallard a plum job overseas brings the honour system into disrepute and is an insult of the must egregious type to all those people who lost jobs, friends, businesses and health both mental and physical. Now they ride off into the sunset as Dames, Knights and ambassadors leaving a trail of utter destruction, debt and division. Rewarding their vanity is literally sickening to me. What use to gain the world but lose your soul springs to mind.
    
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    June 5, 2023 11:34am
    - GazzaW
      
      And let’s not forget Phil Goff CNZM and NZ High Commissioner to the Court of St James. He famously stated back in 2009 that NZ had no need of of an antiquated colonial honours system. Surely the biggest hypocrite of them all. A classic case of Goff at the trough.
      
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      June 5, 2023 12:58pm
- Ghost
  
  Means nothing to me
  
  Congrats to everyone that got an honour, even if I don’t like them, I would hope the same respect will be shown by the left to those on the right that get honours.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:45am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  So where’s the social media outrage that Clarke doesn’t get to be Lord Gayford?
  
  Like, sooo discrim against men. And unmarried people.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:54am
  - Mike
    
    Yes, and that was one reason for the excellent idea to drop titular honours.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:03am
- slightlyrighty
  
  “I’ve been very clear that despite being a republican, I’m not of the view that in the here-and-now in my term of office, that this is something New Zealanders feel particularly strongly about,” Ardern said.
  
  Quote from the NZ Herald, May24, 2021.
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:01am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Captain – Nation is erupting in joy hearing this news. Long live Queen Jacinda! Next in line is Police Minister Ginny the “Crime is falling” Anderson.
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:08am
- cas
  
  Why don’t we turn the honours upside down? Then ( apart from Smithy) all those who got damehoods and Sirs could get a QSM and those who got QSMs( not QSO as that is for public servants) could get the top titles. The QSMs do a hell of a lot for the community.
  
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  June 5, 2023 11:40am
- SpencerArnold
  
  Go you one better; Nicky Hager ONZM for services to “journalism”. FFS
  
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  June 5, 2023 11:44am
- Ra Henare
  
  Of course looking at the BIG picture.!!
  
  Labour had to make her a Dame to get the media coverage and the Feelz leading up to the Election.
  
  Trying to get the 2020 nostalgia vote
  
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  June 5, 2023 12:35pm
  - Dougal10
    
    She probably should have been a Sir in this day and age and that’s not because it takes balls to feck NZ over like she did and then stick her hand out for a reward for doing it .
    
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    June 5, 2023 1:31pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Captain – Dame Jacinda – Sounds great to hear!! Sheeple will now vote Labour in droves.
  
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  June 5, 2023 2:33pm
- Scooter
  
  An award for dividing the country into 2 classes of people, vaxxed/unvaxxed, Maori/non Maori.
  
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  June 5, 2023 6:11pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Another New Zealand first. You can get a gong for telling lies.
Pass the bucket when you are finished.
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June 5, 2023 8:06am
- Scooter
  
  Given an award for screwing a country then walking away as it got too hard.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:11am
- Close Hen Counters
  
  You can get a gong for fucking up the country beyond royally
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:39am
- pdm
  
  Can’t Steve – the bucket is overflowing.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:53am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Give it to MCos then!
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:56am
- hullkiwi
  
  The first PM that has divided the nation (and even families) along racial lines.
  
  The awarding of gongs has always been a process of rewarding graft, but politicians in the UK & NZ have taken the awarding of gongs to themselves and their supporters to all new lows.
  
  In the UK in the 1990s in order to “democratise” the awarding of honours, John Major initiated the acceptance of the nominations for ordinary citizens for awards. So, you got Mrs Sally Rogers MBE for 30 years of public service as a lollypop lady. Or Major getting a knighthood after he was defeated and walked away from politics, or Tony Blair who lied to the British Parliament in order to instigate an illegal war, and the latest new low of Boris Johnson wanting to nominate his father for a knighthood.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:55am
  - Mike
    
    In the UK, outgoing prime ministers get to submit a special ‘resignation honours list’. I believe those for Johnson (and Truss!) have still to be submitted. The most lucrative racket, of course, is creating peerages for wealthy donors.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:07am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Mike, irrespective of which party forms the govt after 14th Oct, the New Year’s Honours will have been submitted to the GG by Chippie.
      
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      June 5, 2023 1:39pm
      - Mike
        
        Maybe. Plenty of politicians get their gongs approved by their opponents though.
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:25pm
krazykiwi

That Ardern is honoured sickens me. Her lies, abuse of office, and dismantling of human rights during her rule make her a candidate for prosecution and exile, and not for being honoured.
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June 5, 2023 8:06am
- krazykiwi
  
  This is why I dislike Ardern.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:11am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Pakes would have been in the corner having a little sook today.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:21am
  - Gaetano
    
    This really got to me after she resigned. Helen Clark.
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131019348/unprecedented-hatred-and-vitriol-helen-clark-on-arderns-resignation
    
    The vitriol was deserved. By making the following statement, Ms Clark showed her delusion IMO.
    
    “Ardern had done an “extraordinary job” at leading New Zealand through crises as well as delivering social policies, and the economy had performed better than “most of its peers in challenging global circumstances”, Clark said.”
    
    By any key economic and social indicator, New Zealand is disastrously worse off than 6 years ago. The problem is that Helen Clark is insulated from all this. She is (reportedly) wealthy and is either in a nice house in Auckland or jetting around the world.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:38am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Helun reportedly is a landlady with multiple properties in her portfolio.
      
      Some enterprising journalist should investigate whether her properties are up to scratch.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:23am
      - Ghost
        
        Old news, everyone knew that when she was pm
        
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        June 5, 2023 9:32am
    - John Loveridge
      
      Clark is a fully-subscribed member of the good old chardonnay socialist club. Like Ardern, she has no actual empathy with the people she claims to represent.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:29am
    - david
      
      HC residing at Waihi Beach seems to ring a bell.
      
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      June 5, 2023 4:18pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Mummy and Daddy gave her the house – assuming both of her Parents have passed on.
        
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        June 5, 2023 6:23pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I wasn’t on here at the time, that was excellent. Just gave it an uptick!
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:28am
    - Grumpy Silver Haired Female
      
      Warning: Pedands Corner.
      How has a simple tick ✅ become an uptick, and its reverse, which used to be a cross or x become a downtick? So much language that was perfectly clear is becoming obscured by fashionable (?) burble.
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:18am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Pedands – I see what you did there
        
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        June 5, 2023 3:42pm
  - Jethrod
    
    243 likes!!!!!
    Has to be some sort of record!
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:51am
- kevn
  
  @kk… Exactly. Maybe the WEF initiated in this dark period of NZ, ‘honour’? Hard to find another as unworthy except for bloomfield.
  I see hager got something as well. Perhaps it was to shut him up?
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:23am
  - Paulus
    
    Of course I understand that Hager got something – he and his activist sister inherited a huge fortune from their father and have not had to do a days work since.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:28am
    - Mike
      
      Yes, I’m in favour of steep inheritance taxes too.
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:53am
- greybeard
  
  So hypocritical of an avowed communist to accept this honour .
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:25am
- Simon
  
  “That Ardern is honoured sickens me”
  
  Why? Its amusing. It’s just Clown World being Clown World. What else can you expect? Accountability or honesty? It’s the system kicking into gear.
  
  Ardern may be the worst PM to date but a lot worse will follow. It’s baked in the cake.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:49am
- ClanMcleod
  
  As a wag on FB pointed out, don’t get too exorcised by her getting a Damehood. She’s in great company, Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris got similar awards…..
  
  kk – that was from Darren, met you when we were down your way. 🙂
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:23am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    And one day there will also be a public campaign calling for Jacinda to be stripped of her Honour.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:00am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    And in NZ….
    
    Sir Ralph Love (Ngātata) Love
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/83775113/sir-ngatata-love-found-guilty-of-fraud
    
    and ex-Sir Ron Brierley
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/05/ron-brierley-officially-loses-knighthood.html
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:00am
- Jack5
  
  The citation of the award of Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit to Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern includes:
  
  “ … she led New Zealand’s response from March 2020 through mitigation frameworks and accelerated vaccination efforts, positioning New Zealand as having one of the lowest COVID-19 related death rates in the Western world.
  
  But at what economic cost – shutting down the country for a party funded on Social Credit-style money printing through bond issues. It’s left us with a heavy inflation hangover.
  
  How successful was the Ardern covid policy ?
  According to the internet source linked to below,NZ’s rate of covid per capita was slightly higher than the world average and higher than that of Australia, and of Taiwan, an industrialised small country that kept its economy running throughout.
  
  International covid comparisons:
  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
  
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  June 5, 2023 11:31am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Labour campaigning blames National.
National campaigning blames Labour.
Act? Real answers. He picked on our road cones, we love our road cones.//
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/not-a-crybaby-in-sight-david-seymour-pulls-up-in-little-yellow-car-attacks-other-parties-in-major-election-speech/ar-AA1c64ZU
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June 5, 2023 8:17am
Tomtoddy

Went to the ACT rally at Sky City theatre in Auckland. Impressed with the content especially hearing from some of the team who came across well. Ther challenge for Seymour and co is delivery. They will be the junior partner and National are not reformers – they have only ever tinkered with change.

ACT need to figure out which areas they can focus on and get enacted. They need to be fully prepared and hit the road running with their ideas ready to be introduced into Parliament in the first term. Three years is not long when you are trying to get legislation written and passed. There will staunch opposition among bureaucrats for much of what ACT proposes and the Nats will not appreciate being dogged. They will need to be smart, hard working and very determined.
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June 5, 2023 8:19am
- krazykiwi
  
  “There will staunch opposition among bureaucrats for much of what ACT proposes”
  
  This is the truth, and is reflected across so-called liberal democracies the world over. The early sacking of a few obstreperous bureaucrats would help set the scene but the as you suggest, National probably don’t have it in them.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:27am
  - Mike
    
    And ACT’s key initiative to control said ‘obstreperous bureaucrats’? A new minister of regulation complete with new ministry of regulation, of course:
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132231427/act-party-launches-campaign-announces-new-ministry-of-regulation
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:40am
    - Dougal10
      
      If the person in charge of this comes from outside the tent it may work, from inside it your cynicism is correct .
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:48am
      - Mike
        
        It will work at least as well as the last time ACT provided a minister of regulation.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:08am
    - rouppe
      
      I must confess I rolled my eyes at that too.
      
      However, if he were to back that up by getting rid of the Ministries of women, Pacific Peoples, Diversity Inclusion and Ethnic Communities, Maori Development, Maori Crown Relations at the same time… Much of that should be dealt with elsewhere much more efficiently and at lower cost
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:13am
      - Mike
        
        I think their ‘alternative budget’ promised to get rid of about 4 of the smallest commissions, while forecasting continued growth in government debt.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:28am
  - Gaetano
    
    “There will staunch opposition among bureaucrats for much of what ACT proposes …”
    
    The picture will be mixed. There will be some legacy employees in the Treasury who will applaud ACT policies. IMO the key will be to appoint a new Public Service Commissioner who will hold a blow torch to CEs. Then get DPMC and Treasury to run reforms.
    
    Of course there will be some Ministries that are beyond fixing. In the Ministry of Education, the CE and ALL of the second tier managers would need to go. Then a major culling of the ideologues who have wrecked education. Yes that will be disruptive for 12 months, but there is no alternative if an incoming government wants to fix things.
    
    Another example is Kainga Ora. Now bloated with thousands of officials. Debt that cannot be paid inside half a century. And with a public house waiting list 5 times longer than 6 years ago. Honestly, where the hell would a new Minister even start?
    
    Final example – the Department of Internal Affairs needs to be the hate speech/censorship ideologues.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:53am
    - Nickc2
      
      IMO, the biggest hurdle to a new Govt achieving anything will be Maori Elites and Academics who see beyond co-governance where co-governance is just a name.
      Whilst we may have a Nat/Act Coalition Govt, the lunatics will still be in charge of the Public Service Asylum.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:23am
    - Mark Hanley
      
      The conundrum ACT supporters face is “how will Seymour implement long term policy”?
      
      Here are a few reasons why Seymour has failed to enact long term NZ change:
      1. Seymour has a small team which doesn’t appear to be loaded with talent – otherwise Seymour wouldn’t have to front all of the ACT public engagements.
      2. Right wing and anti union policies are wiped out when Labour come into power.
      3. Focusing on short term free market reforms instead of long term irreversible infrastructure and constitutional reforms.
      
      So if Seymour wants to bring about real change he needs to:
      1. discourage his supporters and PR staff from unsubstantiated personal attacks on Luxon and National. ACT will need a strong National and a combined 75% majority to enact permanent constitutional reform.
      
      2. Use voters referenda to cement his policies. The end of life bill is the only Seymour policy which has stood the test of time. Seymour should promote a Swiss style referenda system which allows voters to fulfill the role of the upper parliamentary chamber. Given the nasty and corrupt behaviour of the current government, we need a mechanism which stops insidious behaviour like changing the curriculum to further the Labour Hierarchy’s political and self enrichment agenda.
      
      3. Introduce a debt ceiling.
      
      4. Support a Covid response inquiry by a Swiss Judge with the goals of identifying corrupt covid response actions, and reviewing / cementing the NZ pandemic plan.
      
      5. Support prosecution of anyone found to have knowingly mislead the NZ public and hold them to account for the horrific covid jab death toll we are currently experiencing.
      
      6. Conduct a forensic review of all government spending for the last 6 years inluding an audit of the Labour Hierarchy’s personal finances and incomes. Prosecutions will naturally follow.
      
      Call me a dreamer but unless we state our lofty expectations, the chances of them happening are zero.
      
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      June 5, 2023 9:43am
      - Cassandra
        
        You’d better stand for Parliament then. Seymour fronts because that’s now it works. We have presidential politics without the presidents.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:43am
      - Steve Todd
        
        The chances of National/ACT/(?) getting 75% (90) of the seats are zero, that’s for sure.
        
        4 1
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        June 5, 2023 11:26am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Cassandra, I regularly see Shane Reti, Erica Stanford, Chris Bishop, and Nicola Willis fronting their portfolios/responsibilities in the media.
        
        I often wonder whether John Key’s reluctance to do more was driven by the incompetence of the public sector? It is no secret that sexual/gender orientation, the lack of a penis, and the possession of a drop of Maori blood are given a higher priority in the public sector recruitment criteria than competence.
        
        And thanks for your recommendation to stand for parliament. Although I’m not sure why I’d take a pay cut to rid of the satisfaction I feel from getting things done!
        
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        June 5, 2023 1:18pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Steve, lofty goals I know but the rewards would be outstanding if achieved.
        
        As a side note. I noticed the KB Luxon abuse has reduced a lot lately.
        
        Wouldn’t it now be great to shift KBers from almost exclusively identifying problems towards devising and enacting solutions.
        
        6 1
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        June 5, 2023 1:24pm
    - Paulus
      
      But, But, remember the Public Servive are Politically Neutral,
      so see !
      
      6 2
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      June 5, 2023 10:30am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      If they want to do the clean out they need to:
      
      1 – Budget for it
      2 – Restructure the Min Of Ed from the top down
      3 – Accept applications from people outside the Public Service for the top 2 or 3 layers of the Ministries leadership
      4 – Know who they want appointed
      5- Be ruthless
      
      it is doable though the PSA i.e. the Public Service branch of the Labour Party will call strikes across the Public Service in protest.
      
      But frankly the blatant ideology of the Min of Ed is now out of control and root and branch reform is required…..
      
      For Ideology look no further than the emphasis on Maori Science and the history curriculum conveniently leaving out the most pivotal period in NZ history in the musket Wars period.
      
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      June 5, 2023 1:50pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Let the Min of Ed go on strike. Then we can all see how little we need ‘em. And, we don’t have to pay ‘em for the time off.
        
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        June 5, 2023 3:45pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        5) belongs at 2)
        It is time that New Zealand was run by ‘We The People’
        Anything outside the Public Service is not on the agenda – rejected.
        
        Sorry Jim, we have our heads in the noose of SOCIALISM!!!
        
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        June 5, 2023 6:31pm
  - Burtland
    
    Any new government will have to focus on increasing public service capability – major changes will be necessary. For a start addressing the 14,000 additional staff stacked into the public service by Labour – $1B of additional overhead per year and still needing to use massive consultancy. They will need to address diversity hiring and get back to HR basics – actually employing people who can do the job. Its a massive rebuild.
    
    Labour have been the ram-raider in the government jewellery store.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:24am
- artemisia
  
  Decisions made in a coalition of National and ACT, if achieved in October, will be ready to go. Of course they are talking. National will be happy enough to ‘blame’ MMP and hang on to middle voters.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:38am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Opposition to Acts proposals”
  So more filibustering and obfuscation from Labour?
  Remember Clare Curran?
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:40am
- pdm
  
  Not a mention of the ACT meeing on Stuff or the Herald this morning. Stuff had a para or two I saw at about 9pm last night.
  
  Foo Fighters are coming though.
  
  Foo who?
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:58am
  - kowtow
    
    page 4 of the print version , NZ Herald.
    
    Political cartoon today particularly nasty towards the deplorables re Ardern’s award.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:37am
  - Stephen
    
    There was extensive coverage yesterday on Stuff and Newshub. I am in Tauranga and watched the entire thing on on Stuff’s livestream, it was brilliant.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:49am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Foo Fighters, used to love that band. Dave Grohl forced all of the band members to get vaccinated. His drummer Taylor Hawkins died ‘suddenly’ a couple of months later, fit as a fiddle, in his fifties.
    Correlation is not causation of course…..//
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:07am
    - Colville
      
      oh nothing to do with the cocktail of coke , opioids and benes he had taken then???
      
      FFS…not everything is about the vaxx.
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:42am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Colville – did you do an autopsy on him to make that claim? Or are you still reading msm to get your information?
        Like most of the huge increase in cases who ‘died’ suddenly. nobody is investigating the cause of death. But sure, just for you, I’ll pretend nothing happened in the last few years, everything is hunky dory, there was no attack on human rights and the ‘vaccines’ are a non issue, we will move on and we’ll all live happily ever after.
        
        Because forgetting about it will ensure nothing like this ever happens again……//
        
        If you think that you’re delusional.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:03am
      - Ghost
        
        Colombian police say it has not been determined, but they have revealed, “the death may be related to drug consumption,” according to the Mirror, citing Colombian newspaper translations. According to CBS News, Hawkins had 10 substances in his system, including “marijuana, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines,” according to the Colombian attorney general.
        
        Article
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:14am
      - Colville
        
        Clan.
        Its a guy that has been self medicating for close to 40 years… probably could have purchased a fiefdom with what he had spent on blow alone.
        
        But I understand…you only have a hammer… and everything looks like a nail.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:32am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Ghost – “the mainstream media said” –
        
        If he’d had a PCR test he would have died of covid.
        I don’t know what he died from, none of us do. I know he didn’t want to get the jab but Grohl told him he had to or he was out of the band.
        
        I’ve said all along, I don’t care if anyone wants to take the thing, but don’t force others to. That’s why I dislike Grohl who I normally had a lot of time for.
        
        But autopsies that can look for markers indicating vaccine related causes are not being done.
        When they are done they are showing alarming signals linking the vaccines to deaths.
        
        Peter Schirmacher, the director of the Pathological Institute of the University of Heidelberg, who was admired by The Pathologist magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential professionals in the field, stated that 30 to 40 percent of people who died within two weeks after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and whom he performed an autopsy on died from the vaccination, according to the local outlet Augsburger Allgemeine.
        
        The pathologist argues that just like cadavers of people who died from COVID-19, corpses of people who die within the short period of time after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine should be examined more frequently and meticulously. He added that currently, pathologists do not study possible connections between inoculation and a development of deadly health implications such as cerebral vein thrombosis or autoimmune diseases. Since vaccinated people usually do not die under clinical observation, Schirmacher explains, “The doctor examining the corpse does not establish a context with the vaccination and certifies a natural death and the patient is buried. Or he certifies an unclear type of death, and the public prosecutor sees no third-party fault and releases the corpse for burial.”
        
        https://thenewamerican.com/renowned-german-pathologist-urges-more-autopsies-of-vaccinated-people-due-to-high-rate-of-vaccine-related-deaths/
        
        They are deliberately not looking for signals. There are more than enough issues with the jabs to see them urgently stopped. Historically it only took a few issues to see a product pulled from the market. Not with this one for some bizarre reason.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:42am
      - Ghost
        
        The guy was a heavy drug user with an enlarged heart, Colombian attorney general has said his system was full of drugs. His lifestyle killed him, not everything is vax related
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:55am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Ghost – well, according to the ‘official’ narrative, nothing is vaxx related. Amazeballs…….//
        
        I said I don’t know what killed him, Hawkins would have had traces of many things in his body, it doesn’t mean those things killed him, it doesn’t mean the vaxx didn’t.
        
        But we’ll never know, because almost nobody is even looking for a connection to the vaxx. It is deliberately being avoided.
        
        But to reiterate, my point was that Grohl compelled him to do something he didn’t want to do. It might have killed him, it might have contributed to his death, along with his lifestyle. We don’t know because it wasn’t tested for.
        
        There’s more than enough suspicion regarding adverse effects from these jabs that should make it compulsory to check for vaxx damage in every case of ‘sudden death’.
        Instead, in NZ, the law is being changed to make it even easier to assign unusual deaths as normal.
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:23pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        If Cocaine and Vaxx both have known side effects on heart health — scientifically proven — then it is likely that the combined effect is amplified.
        
        Many of the celebs that have died during the vaxx era have been known cocaine users. Most probably makes them more susceptible to vaxx side effects. Like canaries in the coal mine.
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:15pm
      - Ghost
        
        His heart condition predated covid
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:37pm
    - MCōs
      
      Uncle Dave may not be the wonderful chap you think he is https://medium.com/the-monthly/the-foo-fighters-aids-denialism-should-be-on-the-record-6e33666fdc3c
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:02am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        MCōs – I think he’s a dickhead. As for the whole AIDs thing, there are many things about that era that are as dodgy as the covid era. I haven’t looked into it in depth, but I know the corrupt asshole Anthony Fauci is donkey deep in that thing, as he is with covid.
        
        Fauci’s push of dangerous antivirals at the time is documented, it’s referenced in the excellent movie on the subject of cheap, effective medicines being kept from people suffering from AIDs, forcing them to take the useless and horrendously expensive antivirals.
        
        The movie is called The Dallas Buyers Club. Matthew McConaughey plays a brilliant role in it.
        
        Woodroof smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas to treat his symptoms—where he distributed them to fellow people with AIDS by establishing the “Dallas Buyers Club” while facing opposition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Buyers_Club
        
        Very similar to what happened with Ivermectin and HCQ during covid. Also other simple and cheap treatments that weren’t talked about.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:16am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Delivery – something NZ has not seen for 6 years.
  Shitloads of talk and lies though.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:01am
- peterwn
  
  ACT needs to be careful. In a way it does not particularly matter whether someone votes ACT or National, this would in general be neutral on whether there is a left or right leaning government. It is the soft centre vote that is the problem and is the vote National needs (it does not matter if it goes to National or ACT). However these punters could be put off voting National or ACT if they feel uncomfortable with ACT policies or if they feel ACT would be excessively dominating in any National /ACT government. These votes could well go to NZ First or minor parties if not to Labour/ Greens. So ACT needs to be a bit careful here.
  Admittedly the Maori Party is faced with a similar predicament. They could effectively drive votes away from Labour if the electorate cannot stomach co-governance.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:05am
  - Surely Knott
    
    You are only seeing things on a 2 degree axis. Free speech, liberal , bodily autonomy, opposition to government surveillance were all classic left green beliefs until the last 5 years.
    
    So I think Acts most likely voter are not people from the don’t care too much about politics, uneducated centre. But people who are concerned about globalist corporatism , wef, un, forced vaccination , state lockdowns and passports, the free speech state internet surveillance. It is the old left where the act votes lie.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:32am
- Paulus
  
  As long as Act realise that trying in Natioan seats whereby doing so does not split the vote and let Labour in.
  Not sure a clever move !
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:15am
  - peterwn
    
    This generally does not affect the proportionality of Parliament. What would be a problem is if an ACT candidate splits the vote in a significant portion of seats thus letting the Labour candidates win and causing an overhang situation.
    
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    June 5, 2023 12:00pm
- sirknz
  
  $tuff had a piece on the Act policies last night and the comments were open. It was heartening to see that while the usual names in the comments got their usual ~30 likes, the comments pointing out that people want change and are sick of the way things are going were getting 80-100 likes.
  
  It’s also clear that the usual commenters there haven’t read the policy statements or checked out the fully costed alternative budget either.
  
  It is also funny that on Twitter, the lefty moaners are all saying the same things on the ZB feed, nobody else seemed to be commenting.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:23am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Tomtoddy – What you suggest will be hard to enact from opposition against a opular Chippy-Frogs-Maori coalition of chaos which will return to power with a 63 seat majority.
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:11am
- Positan
  
  The way National/Luxon isn’t going – ACT could be the senior “partner.”
  
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  June 5, 2023 1:06pm
Hugh Jarse

It’s inevitable that every PM gets one unless they turn it down like Clark did, whether good or bad. Even Bill Rowling got one for a year in the chair, so it’s no recognition of being any good !. Brace yourselves for Sir Chippy, Dame Carmel, Sir Grant, Ta Kelvin, Ta Willie.
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June 5, 2023 8:25am
backster

Grand Dame Ardern the merit of the award is reflected in the state of the Nation. or maybe it was part of the deal to stand down from office and blame people on the right for abusing her.
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June 5, 2023 8:26am
oldpark

Sheer arrogance by the Hipkins Regime to bestow such an up market title on a person who set out and virtually succeeded in dividing a trusting Nation of circa Five Million people .
Seems Hipkins Cabal have learnt nothing.
Hopefully the voters in next General Election on October 14 2023 will try to help bring New Zealand back to the fun loving Democratic Free Speech Country that respects the same rules and Laws for everyone,and acts accordingly .
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June 5, 2023 8:27am
- Colville
  
  Look on the brightside.
  Imagine what a bitter pill it would have been for Luxon to approve that gong next year if it wasnt done this year.
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:44am
  - Mike
    
    If he becomes prime minister, one of his jobs would be to approve the knighthoods for Trevor Mallard and Phil Goff.
    
    4 6
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    June 5, 2023 11:24am
    - Jack5
      
      Surely Luxon will duck Mallard’s.
      
      5 1
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      June 5, 2023 11:52am
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        No Luxon was taken in by Mallards quackery. Something Trev thanked him for profusely as he packed his bags for Dublin.
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:18pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Or not
      
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      June 5, 2023 12:13pm
kevn

Seymour needs to man up and admit he got it wrong with the jab and consequences. He is looking foolish now.
There is ample international evidence to prove how wrong he was.
https://preview.mailerlite.com/z0k0k1l3i3/2229597076566580200/b1p6/
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June 5, 2023 8:27am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  There’s still time for him to come to his senses.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:36am
  - Cassandra
    
    It’s a fringe issue, important to some commentators here, but in the pattern of things the electorate has moved on. And if Seymour had said vaccines is the issue? What would have changed? Get over it and focus on the aim! We need to expel Labour and the Maori Party from government.
    
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    June 5, 2023 8:41am
    - Che Guava
      
      “We need to expel Labour and the Maori Party from government.”
      
      Then what? The people who are set to come in collectively supported the most unprecedented and draconian policies ever brought in in this country and in most others. “Get over it” is completely insufficient and is frankly moronic. Anyone who wants people to just “get over it” is probably either mentally deficient or is in some way complicit in what happened.
      
      It was the most significant time in New Zealand’s history, and a price needs to be paid. I see that DPF has a post today on the timeline in the Tinetti affair – so f***ing what? Who cares? Compared to what was done to us all by our representatives during Covidmania, that issue is completely irrelevant and insignificant. How about a deep dive series of posts into who did what and when preceding and during Covid?
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:34am
      - Mike
        
        We have a royal commission looking into that atm
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:56am
    - Keith White
      
      It’s not a fringe issue for so many NZers who right now are mourning our dead; and our damaged family members – many of whom while alive will never be well again.
      
      7 2
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      June 5, 2023 1:06pm
    - RightNow
      
      Yeah nah. You all can vote for parties that supported the mandate but for me they’ve shown they would have done just the same. The thing is another pandemic scare is just around the corner, and that’s not a conspiracy theory.
      
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      June 5, 2023 6:11pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Yes he was wrong about vaccines, but that does not mean he is wrong about other things. Looking like two ticks yellow for me.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:53am
  - pdm
    
    Steve I think you should give your Electorate vote to National unless you are in Epsom or Tamaki.
    
    There are a lot of Labour Caucus drones elected in 2020 who need to go – including half a dozen or more Cabinet Ministers eg Ginny Anderson.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:03am
    - cmm
      
      The electorate vote doesn’t really change the composition of parliament much, except in very few seats.
      
      Vote for whom you want. Really want.
      If National loses a couple of electorate seats then so be it.
      
      8 4
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      June 5, 2023 9:54am
      - Colville
        
        Fuck that.
        
        The only aim is to do the most damage to Labour/Greens as possible.
        
        National needs to win every electorate to deny Labour any funding for future campaigns.
        
        I want Labour to be unelectable for four cycles at least.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:13am
      - leoj
        
        Exactly.
        
        National need a wake up call too.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:58am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @Colville,
        
        That’s only 12 years. After what Clark/Cullen did then what Jaspinda/Robertson/Wood/Woods/Hipkins and the rest of the bastards have done to our lovely Country, they need to be punished and keep clear of any power for 18 years.
        I hope to be still alive while Labour are on the ground screaming.
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:49pm
    - Cassandra
      
      No, electorate vote matters little. Make a point – two ticks ACT.
      
      5 2
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      June 5, 2023 10:46am
      - Colville
        
        Electorates get funding for advertising, staff and an office. All good stuff.
        
        Deny Labour any visibility in the community outside of central Wellington and Auckland. It will make it harder for them to rebuild if the public dont know they exist!
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:25am
      - Mike
        
        All MPs get funding for advertising, cars, offices and staff. You will find offices for list MPs in most electorates.
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:48pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Depends on Electorate. Upper Harbour Act vote could mean a vote for Labour.
        Right now it’s two ticks yellow for me. That could change in 5 months to National Candidate and Act Party vote.
        Really I don’t think voting has ever been this important to me, as now.
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:52pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Upper Harbour. Cameron Brewer. I wonder how he will go. Might have to have a chat with him. I’ll email him later.
      Upper Harbour has just got to get away from the Labour shit. I have not even seen the Labour MP.
      
      5 2
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      June 5, 2023 12:42pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “Looking like two ticks yellow for me”
    
    It is party vote Act and my local National MP, Tim van de Molen gets my vote.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:28am
  - Surely Knott
    
    It’s not just that he was wrong, it’s that he was and still continues to be an unapologetic bully and jerk about it as was Chris Bishop. Still undecided voter but I’d like to see Democracy nz in.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:40am
- Scott
  
  kevn – I have to disagree with you a little bit there. Such was the communication of Jacinda Adern, her total grip on the mass media including obsequious fawning female reporters, her grip on the psyche of New Zealanders by using fear, that any politician that opposed the covid lockdown strategy was doomed to oblivion.
  
  It gives me no pleasure to say this. I thought with the Internet we would be able to have a proper debate on ideas even in the midst of a global pandemic. But the fact is that it was impossible. People were gripped with fear and they looked to Jacinda to keep them safe. I don’t like it. I don’t agree with it. But there it is.
  
  So we can rage at Seymour all we want. But the architects of the fear mongering that gripped New Zealand were Jacinda Adern and Ashley Bloomfield. Both of whom have just received honours for their work. Oh the irony of that.
  
  But look we have to forgive on this occasion. Seymour and Luxon and all of the others. Because the problem was us. We got gripped with fear and so many people demanded lockdown and demanded that they be kept safe. That’s just the facts.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:53am
  - kowtow
    
    I blame in very large measure the media party .
    
    It was they who whipped up the fear factor .
    
    And they still do . Today’s “news” we’re approaching the 3000 th victim . well those vaxes worked a treat !
    
    And they whip up over climate , race , gender etc
    
    Who’d have ever thought that the death of Fentanyl Floyd in the US would have resulted in bi lingual road signs in NZ.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:42am
  - cmm
    
    Thinking is hard. People do not like to do it.
    
    Thinking under duress/fear is even harder.
    
    Once people have made a decision, they tend to be stuck in that position. People do not like thinking they were wrong. They will justify it by saying they “followed the science” or some such tosh.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:56am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Some of our thinking has been done by Labour. That is how Socialists work. Do it our way or else, stimulated by the fear porn.
      I knew way back in 2009 with that video that some day this might happen. Yep, I was right.
      
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      June 5, 2023 12:57pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Scott – no offence, but drop the royal ‘we’.
    
    There were thousands upon thousands of NZers who weren’t gripped by fear. Many of them descended on parliament to oppose this nightmare government.
    Their actions were approved of by 30% of the population according to a poll at the time.
    
    Forgiveness isn’t a problem in the slightest, but first it needs acknowledgment from the politicians involved. So far they all refuse point blank to even admit anything bad happened. It’s an astonishing situation.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:13am
    - Cassandra
      
      The Royal we is the speaker ie the individual. It does NOT mean plural!
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:48am
      - Mike
        
        A lot of people get this wrong – another important issue, isn’t it?
        The use of ‘we’ on Kiwiblog usually means that the commenter assumes, often wrongly, that everyone commenting shares the same opinion.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:21am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Cassandra – I didn’t know that, thank you. Yes, I was meaning please don’t assume to speak for all of us.
        As we know, the numbers opposing this were a lot higher than presumed. Not everyone will stand up or speak out, understandable.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:48am
      - Jack5
        
        Of course WE can …
        
        The Wanganui-born lexicographer, Robert Burchfield, in his 1990s edition of the famed grammar book, Fowler’s, says:
        
        … the term “the royal we” has come to be used in a weakened, transferred, or jocular manner. The best-known example came when Margaret Thatcher informed the world in 1989 that her daughter-in-law had given birth to a son: We have become a grandmother, the Prime Minister said.
        
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        June 5, 2023 12:08pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      “Sorry” is not in the Cabinet Manual, or if it was the page has been torn out.
      
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      June 5, 2023 1:00pm
  - Paulus
    
    In my local BOP Times Ardern’s announcement, showing her humility, is actually hidden in half a page, someway in the paper and not headlines as I would have expected as they have been one of her greatest supporters.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:35am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      She’s yesterday’s news. And today’s fish & chip wrapper. A career arc, right there.
      
      6 2
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      June 5, 2023 12:15pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Were Seymour and Luxon gripped with fear. I don’t think so. Political fear maybe. Were they not privy to more info than the general public. Did they know that a covid death was really a death from any cause within 28 days of a test. Did they see the cabinet briefings from science advisors that kids should only receive one vaccine and should not be mandated due to low risk ? The advice that cabinet ignored.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:44am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Seymour and Luxon were not gripped with fear, they just weren’t ready for what happened or how to stop it. NZ has never seen the wrath of Socialism that we now see today. The left had the perfect way to implement it.
      If only more center right had watched that 2009 video and started being aware if where we could end up. I have watched a lot of videos and news opinions since 2009.
      Things like those who escaped Socialism from China, Venezuela etc. A Chinese lady who became a US Citizen and was allowed to by a gun. The guy who escaped Venezuela and became a big oil man in the US. The oil man Maximim something spoke at a Trump meeting said (paraphrased) “Do not lose this American Country to Socialism. I was lucky, I had somewhere to run to. Americans have nowhere to go”
      
      7 2
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      June 5, 2023 1:21pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Scott – why can’t Seymour and/or Luxon simply state what you just stated? We all know what happened, why do the opposition keep pretending it didn’t happen?
    
    7 4
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    June 5, 2023 10:58am
    - Scott
      
      Because they all want to move on.
      
      Because many many NZers are still in the grip of covid mania and are still to this day frightened of covid. I visited two of them in Masterton hospital this afternoon.
      
      I visited them while wearing a mandatory mask. I don’t like it. I don’t agree with it. But the fact is that many NZers have not moved on from covid and we still have to wear masks.
      
      Politicians who apologise for their support of lockdown may please some people but will alienate and upset many others. I met two such people this afternoon. There are many who think that way.
      
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      June 5, 2023 3:49pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Then the country is screwed. Ardern has done a brilliant job convincing people there is a deadly plague and most will do whatever they are told so long as the government ‘protects’ them.
        
        What a nightmare.
        
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        June 5, 2023 5:16pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        And the mask isn’t mandatory.
        
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        June 5, 2023 5:17pm
      - Scott
        
        The mask at Masterton hospital is mandatory. Read the sign at the door. Everyone is wearing a mask.
        https://www.wairarapa.dhb.org.nz/news-and-publications/latest-news/2023-04-13-if-you-are-visiting-wairarapa-hospital/
        
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        June 5, 2023 6:41pm
- mandk
  
  He needs to more than simply admit he was wrong.
  
  He should apologise for the harms he has done through his complicity in promoting a vaxx that is neither effective nor safe.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:14am
  - Keith White
    
    Emphasis exactly as Axel in ‘The Deer Hunter’ used to say.
    
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    June 5, 2023 1:09pm
Mike

How excited the Queen must have been when her husband, the King, told her that he was appointing her to the Order of New Zealand as a special way of marking his own birthday.
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June 5, 2023 8:35am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Uptick from me, Mikey
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:04am
  - Mike
    
    As an aside, isn’t it a bit slack that 9 months after the queen’s death we have the second honours list where our officials haven’t managed to get the king to sign the parchment scrap to change the queen’s service order to the king’s service order?
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:24am
    - Cassandra
      
      Yes, important issue, mike. OTOH……………….
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:49am
      - Mike
        
        Bad form. It’s not as though they didn’t have a long time to prepare for the queen’s death.
        
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        June 5, 2023 11:18am
kevn

@Captn… Many NZer’s live in hope Seymour will. Soon.
It will be an opportunity for him to show some humility and win even more support.
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June 5, 2023 8:42am
- Gaetano
  
  All he would need to say is:
  
  “The emerging evidence about the vaccines now show that the mandates and vaccine passes were never justified. I am sorry that I got that wrong and I apologise to the thousands of New Zealanders who needlessly suffered from these policies.”
  
  I guarantee ACT support would go up by 5 percentage points overnight.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:02am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Even better if he was to list the ways the Ardern Government prevented a free flow of information about the Covid pandemic strategies imposed on us.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:16am
    - kowtow
      
      Given our te media pardy’s obsession with all things Elon Musk ,I’m surprised they haven’t made a big splash about his recent criticism of the UK regime setting up a ” Counter Disinformation Unit” , which according to the UK Telegraph may have flagged social media posts regarding Covid to various internet media orgs for removal.
      
      Of course we know the DPMC here had a hand in our very own so called Disinformation Project.
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:35am
  - Burtland
    
    someone in opposition needs to re-litigate what happened during COVID and stick it on Labour before the election – this division needs to be healed
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:36am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    It’s really that simple. Just tell the truth.
    
    12 4
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    June 5, 2023 10:15am
    - mawm
      
      Heh! at 11.31 three people don’t like to hear the truth.
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:32am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        mawm – astonishing isn’t it?
        
        4 2
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        June 5, 2023 11:56am
Gaetano

Coming soon to New Zealand…

“The Irish government intends to have the country functioning with zero carbon emissions by 2050. In order to meet such lofty aims 10% of all livestock in Ireland would need to be “displaced” in the years ahead.

In the report seen by the Irish Independent the Department of Agriculture put forward the idea of putting to death 200,000 cows to enable the agricultural sector to play its part in reducing emissions.”

https://tvpworld.com/70291788/irish-govt-proposes-eur-600-mln-cull-of-20000-cows-to-meet-climate-goals

Madness. Unless the world stops eating beef and dairy products (the trend has been the exact opposite), Irelands market share in beef and dairy will simply be met by other producers. Effect on global methane emissions from agriculture = zero.

Hat Tip: No Minister

https://nominister.wordpress.com/2023/06/05/the-terror-approaches/
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June 5, 2023 8:57am
- Mike
  
  LOL at ‘putting to death’.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:03am
  - Mark Hanley
    
    Ireland is transforming into one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
    
    Ireland’s low tax business friendly policies have attracted large profitable businesses and lifted the standard of living enormously. Ireland were also clever enough to stay well clear of the predictably disastrous BREXIT!
    
    Ireland can afford to adopt policies which enhance its global reputation and won’t have a measurable affect on its burgeoning, wealth creating economy.
    
    The NZ Labour government on the other hand spent the last 6 years destroying any semblance of NZ wealth whilst pursuing a fantastical and unnecessary climate agenda.
    
    WHY? Only a forensic audit of government spending and the labour Hierarchy’s personal finances will reveal why so much of our money has been spent for no benefit.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:00am
    - kowtow
      
      I think you overstate the indigenous nature of Ireland’s “wealth creation.”
      
      All they’re really doing is offering tax incentives to large corporations to set up their HQ’s and factories .
      
      The minute any of those advantages substantially change they’ll go elsewhere . Much like much of the immoral international investment in cheap Chinese labour. And Ireland will end up much like it did in 1922 , a socio economic basket case on the edge of regime induced famine .
      
      And as to its global reputation ,that tax regime has pissed off a lot of their fellow Brussellians , in Brexit hating capitals.And the White House .
      
      Be interesting to see how Sinn Fein negotiates the EU , when it comes to power , seeing as how it has always claimed to hate foreign imperialism.
      
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      June 5, 2023 12:05pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Ireland became adept at exploiting the EU’s solidarity funding. They combined this with offering quasi tax haven status to multinationals that rorted the tax base of their fellow EU members.
      
      Good luck to them, but not a lot of comparability with NZ.
      
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      June 5, 2023 12:22pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Really? so providing a business friendly environment with a well educated workforce** isn’t possible in NZ and isn’t sustainable in Ireland?
        
        If reducing tax is all that is needed to increase the wealth of a nation? Why isn’t Bulgaria climbing the OECD rankings?
        
        **According to the 2022 US News rankings, Ireland is among the top twenty best countries for education
        
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        June 5, 2023 1:42pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      … predictably disastrous BREXIT!
      
      Oh really?
      
      “Poor Brexit Britain” both beats Eurozone member France on GDP per capita and has extended its lead in GDP terms from a $65 billion bigger economy to $287 billion bigger economy. Not something remainers and economists predicted…
      
      Haha. The 1990’s called and want their domestic and foreign policies back.
      
      In case you hadn’t noticed there’s been quite the reversal to that Right-wing mindset of Corporates-Are-Awesome, Free Trade Unions are great and with tax and spending cuts we can ignore everything else.
      
      I’ll give you credit for mentioning education downthread, but the reason it’s in the shitter is that National basically ignored it between 2008-2017, assuming that the Education-crats had things well in hand. Actually they did – for the Left.
      
      Oh, and National signing up to Net Zero is pretty going to squash everything else.
      
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      June 5, 2023 2:00pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Hi Tom. That is some of the most precise brexit cherry picking I ever saw.
        
        I prefer to take an accurate, macro view. Have a look at the Bank of England’s view of Brexit, the enormous cost to the British economy, and as a result the decline in living standards of the English people (The vast majority of whom now want to reverse Brexit).
        
        Hell even Nigel Farage is on record saying Brexit is a failure.
        
        I agree that National’s fear of the teachers’ unions limited their appetite for change in education but they did bring in National Standards which is a vital first step to improving educational outcomes (you can’t manage without measurements) and kids actually went to shool pre 2017. National also partnered with ACT to introduce charter schools which improved attendance and achievement immensely..
        
        Signing up to net zero is a reputational must in this crazy world. What is important is the path a government chooses to get there and the cost to you and me. Subsidizing electric vehicles is as costly and useless as voting for Tory Whanau. Looking to add NZ’s carbon sequestering pasture and huge body of surrounding seawater to the equation (as Luxon has floated) is a much cheaper method of reaching the target.
        
        What is your solution for improving the NZ economy and NZ education?
        
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        June 5, 2023 3:29pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        an accurate, macro view…
        
        It doesn’t get more macro than GDP.
        
        … the enormous cost to the British economy, and as a result the decline in living standards of the English people…
        
        And there it is. Exactly what I said about your attitude that everything revolves around economics. Being independent of a bunch of rule-making bureaucrats means nothing to you apparently. What’s next, NZ finally accepts the century-old offer of becoming an Australian state? You sound like you’d support it.
        
        Hell even Nigel Farage is on record saying Brexit is a failure.
        
        Because he said that it’s revealed that British politicians are just as useless as their Euro comrades, with examples of continued poor border control of immigrants, the highest taxes in 70 years, and so forth – all with a “Conservative” government.
        
        No wonder people are pissed off, but I’ve seen no argument that any of that would be improved by re-joining the EU and I don’t see the Labour opposition making that argument, which shows what they think of your opinion polls.
        
        … that National’s fear of the teachers’ unions limited their appetite for change in education
        
        Nothings changed given the tiny proposals I’ve seen about an extra hour of math and reading – and the teachers will screw that just as they screwed the vaunted National Standards. Again, typical National Party thinking, which is that you can drive changes via a giant bureaucracy despite it being filled with people who don’t vote for you because of your ideology, and who certainly don’t agree with your ideas on education.
        
        You’re going to have to go around them, and even charter schools are not sufficient for that, as they can easily be scrapped by the next government.
        
        Instead put more power – money power, not “vouchers” – into the hands of parents via dedicated accounts on a regular basis so they can use that money to put pressure on schools to up their game in educating their kids. Even if actual choice will not always be available, especially in the early stages, the threat will. We’ve tried everything else.
        
        It would also be smart politically; if it was pushed hard to thousands or tens of thousands of parents it would also provide National, as early as 2026, with the sort of threat Labour uses every election: If you vote for the other lot they’ll take your money away from them. That’d be fun to watch.
        
        Signing up to net zero is a reputational must …
        
        “reputational” doesn’t heat houses, power industry or feed people. At a minimum we should lag behind other idiot nations, waiting until they abandon this idea in the face of electricity that’s 2,3, or 4+ times as expensive while being less reliable. Net Zero dead by 2030 in the face of simple physical limits.
        
        What is your solution for improving the NZ economy?
        
        I’ve written enough to be going on with, esp on education. Another time then. And just in case you think I’m merely an ACT junkie who’s down on Luxon I’ll put this in that I wrote here on KB in 2008, as I did for the Dunedin Giant the other day:
        
        what is National going to do should it win this November beyond babysitting the institutions of Labour and the Left. Nursing those things along, tiring all the time and steadily losing votes simply by being in Government and getting blamed for the insanities of those self-same institutions. Until the day comes, one or two election cycles down the road, when a revitalised Labour gets back into power and gets to push forward some more. Ratchet Socialism at its best.
        
        What’s going to be different this time?
        
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        June 5, 2023 7:04pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Tom. your misunderstanding of a macro view, your use of specific irrelevant examples to extrapolate a false hypothesis, your dislike of wealth generating corporations, and your use of unsubstantiated excuses for the predicted Brexit disaster, suggests an allegiance eerily similar to Matt Long.
        
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        June 6, 2023 10:41am
- Albert_Ross
  
  What exactly do you think will happen in the next few years to all the cows now alive?
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:06am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    They’ll have a few more baby calves.
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:06am
  - Gaetano
    
    They will give birth to more cows?
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:07am
  - sirknz
    
    They will live forever, farting us into Armageddon because while we are living in a communist vegan utopia…
    
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    June 5, 2023 1:41pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Reality…
  You can have a functioning economy OR net zero.
  Pick one.
  
  (Real reality… Net zero is impossible unless you want to live like a stone-age African).
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:10am
  - mandk
    
    We don’t have to be like stone-age Africans.
    
    We have our own home-grown archetype: stone-age Maori.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:18am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      Are you referring to all or some Maori?
      
      2 7
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      June 5, 2023 10:35am
      - Che Guava
        
        Gotta temper our rhetoric to please people who hate us, don’t we Chuck. Sheesh.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:47am
      - Cassandra
        
        All Maoris who don’t disavow this racism.
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:50am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      “Gotta temper our rhetoric to please people who hate us, don’t we Chuck. Sheesh.”
      
      There were a number of Maori at the Act Conference who do not hate us depending on who the “us”.
      
      The majority of Maori do not hate non Maori. Do you disagree.
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:07am
  - sirknz
    
    I don’t want to live like a stone age anybody.
    
    The people pushing net zero would like me to live like someone from the stone age.
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:26am
  - cmm
    
    Stone age Africans were surrounded by wildebeest, zebras and antelope.
    
    How is that any different from livestock?
    
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    June 5, 2023 9:38am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Elephants fart.
      
      6 2
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      June 5, 2023 9:44am
      - cmm
        
        Anyone who has driven through Kruger or Etosha or wherever and hit a lump of elephant dung on the road will tell you they do a lot more than fart. Small vehicles have occasionally damaged their suspension doing so.
        
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        June 5, 2023 2:42pm
    - Ruawai
      
      Maybe the net zero fans just remove all farm fencing and let the livestock roam free for anyone to hunt.
      
      6 1
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      June 5, 2023 9:47am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  2050 I will not be on this planet. 2042 is my clock out goal.
  Irelands share of beef and dairy will be met by other producers. Well, here is a chance for NZ to increase exports. Some of the stuff we produce is World quality.
  But no, the fruitloops will continue to drive us into the ground.
  Vote Labour this Election and see what happens. The last 6 years was only a test to see how far they can push us. Full blown Socialism.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:10am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Oh, effect BY agricultural methane on the climate…. zero.
  Change my mind.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:11am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The biggest producers of milk in the World are:
  India, USA, China, Brazil & Pakistan.
  
  I can’t see any of those countries will be racing to reduce their dairy herds.
  
  The biggest producers of beef in the world are:
  USA, China, Brazil & India.
  
  I don’t think they’ll be reducing their beef herds anytime soon.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:24am
  - Burtland
    
    the BRICS bloc – biggest emitters of CO2 as well
    
    10 1
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    June 5, 2023 10:02am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Presumably the parts of India that produce beef are not those parts that worship the sacred cow.
    
    7 2
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    June 5, 2023 10:06am
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      It is actually water buffalo they produce for meat.
      
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      June 5, 2023 11:06am
      - kowtow
        
        Goats ?
        
        4 2
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        June 5, 2023 11:49am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        True…
        known as carabeef…and exported to Middle East & SE Asia.
        
        6 1
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        June 5, 2023 2:48pm
- kowtow
  
  The whole “Irish” project has been built on the lie of “English” oppression and the need therefor of independence .
  When their Elites saw they could make easy money out of German tax transfers they took up the European project with the enthusiasm of a new convert .
  
  Now they’ve enslaved themselves to the Brussels Elite.
  Not so much the Uncle Tom , but Uncle Mick syndrome.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:29am
  - Mike
    
    Perhaps the English should recolonize Ireland, but make a more thorough job of it this time.
    
    3 9
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    June 5, 2023 10:27am
    - Paulus
      
      With the recent change of Government in the North only time when Ireland becomes one and fully joins the EC as one country.
      Britain may well be happy to see the troublesome place go.
      
      5 0
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      June 5, 2023 1:42pm
      - KH
        
        Irish troubles were all the fault of the English.
        
        4 1
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        June 5, 2023 2:56pm
- cmm
  
  2050: So it means SFA.
  
  These “goals” 25 years into the future are a great way to make all the virtue signalling sounds without actually doing anything and kicking the can down the road.
  
  By 2050, the current crop of politicians will be retired and the new crop will be blaming the old crop for doing nothing and will be setting new goals for 2075.
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:41am
- Burtland
  
  ….the mammoth methane mistake
  
  The 1991 opinion was that methane was 28x times more potent than CO2.
  seems the science has changed
  The new multiplier is 7x
  
  https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/barry-brill-what-will-we-do-about-the-mammoth-methane-mistake
  
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  June 5, 2023 9:58am
  - I remember when
    
    Burtland:
    In twenty five years time what will the multiplier be?
    Or its shelf life.
    
    7 2
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    June 5, 2023 10:30am
    - Burtland
      
      Theres plenty of junk science out there – the RCP8.5 and RCP6 ocean rise scare, CFCs and the ozone scare or Y2K scare or Acid Rain scare – they were all someones 15mins of fame. Seems the methane multiplier is heading the same way.
      
      3 1
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      June 5, 2023 4:18pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Gaetano – as pointed out by a commentator there, if they do that it makes no difference to anywhere except Argentina who will pick up the slack and increase their own income by meeting the demand.
  
  It’s insanity, and it needs to be stopped in a hurry.
  
  8 2
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  June 5, 2023 10:19am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    At this point I don’t what it’s going to take to stop the insanity if cold via blackouts and malnourishment don’t do it:
    
    Leaked documents suggest the Irish government is planning to cull 65,000 cows a year for the next three years, at a cost of 200million euros a year, to meet its climate targets…The scheme would be a bit like voluntary redundancy, with farmers offered financial inducements to give up their cows.
    
    6 1
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    June 5, 2023 12:26pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Ha, that’s funny. The EU for decades offered subsidies for increased dairy output (aka the butter mountain); now they’re paying again to get rid of the cows. There’s a Euro Sir Humphrey at work here somewhere.
      
      3 1
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      June 5, 2023 3:54pm
Tom Barker

Congratulations to Nicky Hager for his award for world-class investigative journalism
6 15
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June 5, 2023 8:58am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  You forgot the //sarc.
  
  14 2
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  June 5, 2023 10:03am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    That would be a tautology on this forum, Capt’n
    
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    June 5, 2023 10:08am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.
Amy Brooke on how the left have wrecked NZ.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/political-and-cultural-corruption-have-wrecked-new-zealand-heres-what-happens-when-the-left-divides-a-country-by-race/
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June 5, 2023 9:21am
Maggie Pie

It’s ClarkE who I feel sorry for.

😀 😀 😀
15 2
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June 5, 2023 9:25am
- mandk
  
  Yes, it’s very unfair and sexist.
  
  If Fred Bloggs becomes Sir Fred, his Missus becomes Myrtle, Lady Bloggs.
  
  Clarke doesn’t get anything.
  
  12 1
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  June 5, 2023 9:36am
  - Ghost
    
    He can call himself lady Clarke if he wants, no one will object
    
    17 2
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    June 5, 2023 9:41am
- Maggie Pie
  
  My partner knows ClarkE thru his involvement with arranging a MV sponsorship some time back. Really really lovely guy by all accounts.
  
  Reckoned he could just imagine ClarkE’s response when Cindy told him…. “she was in 2 minds whether or not to accept the honor”.
  ClarkEy would have said, “Nah, fuck ’em, just take it”
  
  LOL!!
  
  13 3
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  June 5, 2023 9:56am
- Gaetano
  
  Who?
  
  5 2
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  June 5, 2023 10:15am
- Jethrod
  
  Perhaps ClarkE will get his knighthood for “services to reality entertainment”//
  
  6 1
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  June 5, 2023 11:17am
  - Mike
    
    Paul Holmes got one for that, so it can’t be ruled out.
    
    6 0
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    June 5, 2023 12:51pm
    - Jethrod
      
      But but but, Holmes had Talent!
      
      2 0
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      June 5, 2023 3:44pm
      - Mike
        
        As a comedian.
        
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        June 5, 2023 4:13pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Featured in Stop Co-Governance, but I will put this here. From Spectator Australia.
You will not see this in the paid for NZ media. I wonder if we will ever get real media back. Don’t think so, the cancer has gone too far.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/06/political-and-cultural-corruption-have-wrecked-new-zealand/
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June 5, 2023 9:29am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  There are other items by Amy Brooke but they are all paywalled.
  
  6 2
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  June 5, 2023 9:41am
  - Jack5
    
    Paywalls allow web sites do more than raise money. They allow web sites to choose which political opinion articles Jill and Joe voter are able to read.
    
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    June 5, 2023 12:18pm
- David Garrett
  
  the cancer has gone too far
  
  Steve: I agree…media wise we are totally fucked.
  
  16 2
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  June 5, 2023 9:53am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Nicky Hagar gets a gong.

That’s the equivalent of the lift boy offering share market tips during a sharemarket boom.

If I was a Leftie mid level manager (I get down on my knees every night & thank God that this is not so) I’d be hunkering down right now, paying off debt & entering no new commitments.

131 days, and falling.
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June 5, 2023 9:30am
- Burtland
  
  Labour must be lining him up to do another hit job – the gong will increase his credibility with the sheeple
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:06am
- Prince
  
  Very strange how the old ‘2017 hit men’ (Hagar, John Campbell, and that guy who ran a series of TV specials on Poverty) have been so quiet for 6 years.
  I expect next year, if Nat/Act win, TVNZ will resurrect ‘Seven Sharp’ as a nightly reminder of how awful things are and how terrible the new Govt is.
  
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  June 5, 2023 10:44am
- Jack5
  
  Hagar is like a real-life version of the Spy v Spy comic within “Mad Magazine”.
  
  A King’s Birthday award from his Leftist political mates won’t help him stay in shadows.
  
  6 2
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  June 5, 2023 11:37am
kevn

@NeverMind… The price for silence,
6 4
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June 5, 2023 10:09am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Vaccine-Injured Americans Sue the Biden White House for Censoring Them.
That is breaching the First Amendment. Joe Biden, his press secretary and a host of others.
My question is, do those in NZ who were affected have any grounds to sue the Govt and the then PM Jaspinda? No wonder she ran.
Safe and effective, how many times was that lie repeated?

https://patriotsnewsstand.com/theteapartydaily/vaccine-injured-americans-sue-the-biden-white-house-for-censoring-them/
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June 5, 2023 10:10am
I remember when

Linncoln University soil scientist is saying what they knew in 1938.
You have to clear the debris and replant grass on the silt.
10 2
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June 5, 2023 10:12am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So to get nice water you have to take the pigs out upstream….
  
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  June 5, 2023 6:35pm
I remember when

Has the cross party agreement on Medium Density Residential Standards been shattered by the need to re-evaluate high density housing areas after the cyclones.
Are ‘green field developments’ necessary while large parts of the housing programme sit in limbo.
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June 5, 2023 10:18am
Gaetano

More importantly it is defamatory.
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June 5, 2023 10:21am
NeverMindTheBollocks

When even $tuff is ridiculing Wellington City Council then you know there’s a problem.

This is the same Council-owned Convention Centre that has no carparks because all visitors will arrive by bike. Even if they come from overseas, because they’re counting on international business to reduce the operating losses.

What a clusterf*ck.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/wellington/132230770/yellow-line-paradox-the-dropoff-zone-where-you-cant-stop
17 2
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June 5, 2023 10:34am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Of course it’s a clusterf*ck.
  It’s a Wellington City Council project.
  
  8 2
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  June 5, 2023 12:44pm
Jack5

The NZ party winds down, but no-one’s worried yet about the smoke wisps and warning smell from the ceiling …

In Stuff, the magic wealth from State money printing is analysed. The mirage is shimmering.

Still, with an election coming, things look fine for Labour’s Social Creditors who cranked up the bond-issue, money-printing machine.

The partying voters are ignoring the economic smoke wisps and burning smell from the ceiling: our crashing balance of payments – how much NZ earns and how much it pays.

Stuff reports the party is running down:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/300894992/pandemic-wealth-vanishes-will-we-get-it-back

But doesn’t mention the real story – balance of payments:

https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-current-account-deficit-widens-to-33-8-billion/
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June 5, 2023 10:45am
I remember when

Once again the police show the need for money exceeds their real belief in preventing accidents.
In Wellington, on Saturday, and on Transmission Gully on the return journey there was hawkeye, just over the top of a rise on the downhill slope.
Not measuring how fast you were travelling, just your speed at a split in time.
11 2
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June 5, 2023 10:53am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The Paremata interchange? You pick up speed heading south down TG to get a zoom on going up the other side. All perfectly safe. The cops use a laser to track you near the bottom of the hill, then have a line of pursuit cars waiting half way up the zoom side.
  
  Not really the most pressing public safety issue.
  
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  June 5, 2023 12:39pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Should Trump tone it down?

https://spreely.video/v/2617068970/Should-Trump–Tone-it-down—The-Town-Hall-Doesn-t-Think-So
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June 5, 2023 10:54am
- Che Guava
  
  Certainly not. That is his appeal. If people wanted a shill who won’t upset the apple cart, they can vote for DeSantis. If they want any possibility of substantive change, they’ll vote for Trump. It is this possibility of substantive change that is the reason why Trump is considered the number 1 threat to the status quo.
  
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  June 5, 2023 11:00am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Trump/DeSantis is a campaign show. DeSantis is doing Trump a favour for endorsing him to run for Governor.
    Meanwhile the Democrats are getting the Dominion Voting Machines reconditioned.
    
    3 3
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    June 5, 2023 1:26pm
- Mike
  
  ‘Toning it down’ is not only psychologically impossible for him but would also open the door for challengers like Ron Meatball or Mother Pence.
  
  3 9
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  June 5, 2023 11:15am
  - Inandout
    
    Mike, what have the Dems got other than Sniffer Joe or Hairbrained Harris?
    
    8 3
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    June 5, 2023 11:27am
Chuck Bird

On thing that concerns me is how Labour plan to fund super forever starting at 65. I wonder if they plan on means testing super on assets and income. I hope they get asked if they will commit to no means test in their election campaign debates.
16 2
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June 5, 2023 11:13am
- Mike
  
  Shouldn’t all welfare benefits be subject to means tests and work requirements.
  
  5 13
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  June 5, 2023 11:16am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Superannuation isn’t a benefit.
    
    15 4
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    June 5, 2023 12:01pm
    - Mike
      
      It surely is.
      
      4 12
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      June 5, 2023 12:54pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        When you are 65 tell me it is not a benefit Mike.
        
        7 2
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        June 5, 2023 1:28pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Funded by current taxpayers. Handed out willy-nilly to a selected group (oldies) regardless of their income or assets or how much tax they have ever paid.
      
      A transfer payment – all the other ones are called “benefits”….
      
      0 1
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      June 5, 2023 10:00pm
  - Ghost
    
    Means test it, reduce the payments of those that don’t need it and use those savings to increase the payments of those that do need it.
    
    5 6
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    June 5, 2023 12:05pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Ghost – too rational an idea for the types that go into politics.
      
      3 5
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      June 5, 2023 12:32pm
    - Taieri
      
      OK. Accessing public health system is virtually impossible now. Let’s means test super payments to complement it.
      So, what’s the point in paying taxes or in saving then?
      Perhaps, we should ask why “those that do need it” do need it?
      
      7 1
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      June 5, 2023 1:00pm
      - Ghost
        
        Your taxes are going towards the roads you drive on, hospitals and schools, police, army, prisons of rohe cminrinlas, etc etc., paying back the huge debt the country is in. Money you think you are paying in tax to look after you in your old age is gone.
        
        There are pensioners in this country who go without meals to heat their homes in winter while other pensioners are wealthy and collecting a pension they don’t need. Would you rather rich people are getting a pension or those who are struggling and only have the state pension are looked after better?
        
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        June 5, 2023 10:17pm
    - Paulus
      
      I have heard of one well known Superannuant who sends his entitlement directly to the IRD as a credit on his tax account.
      
      5 0
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      June 5, 2023 1:48pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Means test it
      
      Just abate it like all other benefits …
      
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      June 5, 2023 10:03pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    This one’s been thrashed to death, Mikey.
    
    BTW, what’s your plan?
    
    9 1
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    June 5, 2023 12:41pm
    - Mike
      
      Revenue neutral tax reform by reducing GST to 10%, means testing all benefits, and taxing capital gains and inheritances.
      
      3 5
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      June 5, 2023 2:33pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        A good response, Mike. I look forward to seeing you put these ideas to the electorate.
        
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        June 5, 2023 3:57pm
Grumpy Silver Haired Female

Congratulations to those who received awards in the Kings Birthday Honours, many for services for their communities, whatever their origins, beliefs or driving forces.
We should remember that no-one receives one of these without being nominated by their peers, or those whose lives they have impacted. No awards, nowadays, come all unsuspecting. Someone has to put a name forward to the committee. I wonder who our recently resigned PM’s nominators were?
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June 5, 2023 11:22am
- Maggie Pie
  
  I posted here about 3 monyths ago that Cindy had informed Chippie prior to handing over the reins, that she wanted a Damehood prior to heading off for her stint at Harvard later this year.
  
  (Just did a quik search but can’t find original post. Perhaps Batz deleted?)
  
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  June 5, 2023 11:49am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  On the basis that you can fool some of the people all of the time, I’m sure there are quite a few of the eternally deluded who were happy to nominate our Jaxxie.
  
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  June 5, 2023 12:43pm
crikey

Dr John Campbell’s latest post on his YouTube channel is about the UK’s Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU). Read it and be concerned about the intrusion into people’s lives (like tracking comments from consistent critics of aspects of the Covid pandemic treatment).

The suppression of criticism is in itself disinformation as their ‘evidence-based’ approach appears somewhat selective.

How much of this is happening in New Zealand?

At least the UK is being open in what they are doing. I don’t think our government is as open.
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June 5, 2023 11:51am
- ClanMcleod
  
  crikey – NZ and Canada are probably the worst offenders when it comes to erosion of human rights, freedoms and erosion of democracy.
  
  The place is rapidly becoming a basket case and is heading to Zimbabwe and South Africa territory.
  
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  June 5, 2023 12:04pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Stunning similarity between all 5 eyes partners is my take.
    
    4 2
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    June 5, 2023 4:41pm
ClanMcleod

As stated previously, the more jabs you get, the more likelihood of getting covid. This experiment needs stopped immediately.

mRNA Covid vaccines increase your risk of contracting Covid 19.

This substantiates those arguing that Covid vaccines ‘imprint’ the immune system and limit its flexibility to deal with infection. In simple terms, the immune system becomes stuck with not just an ineffective response, but it steps backwards.

In technical terms, the authors conclude:

“Immune imprinting from prior exposure to different antigens in a prior vaccine and class switch toward noninflammatory spike-specific immunoglobulin G4 antibodies after repeated SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination have been suggested as possible mechanisms whereby prior vaccine may provide less protection than expected….it is important to examine whether multiple vaccine doses given over time may not be having the beneficial effect that is generally assumed….The unexpected finding of increasing risk with increasing number of prior COVID-19 vaccine doses needs further study.”

https://hatchardreport.com/the-facts-being-kept-hidden-from-the-new-zealand-public-at-all-costs/
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June 5, 2023 12:12pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  NewstalkZB is taking call about Dame Comrade Ardern and whether she should have accepted the honour.
  
  Labour fans are calling up about how she saved up from Covid 19.
  
  11 3
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  June 5, 2023 12:44pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Mass formation is something to behold isn’t it?
    
    9 3
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    June 5, 2023 12:50pm
lifesgood

Man oh man, the callers and texters into the morning session on Newstalk ZB, the host said they were in their hundreds, were almost entirely opposed to Jacinda’s gong. The breathtaking hypocrisy of it! That woman has an enormous ego. She had no chance of being a good PM, hasn’t got the brains, but her ego got the better of her and now, once again, an avowed anti-monarchist and republican has the nerve to accept this damehood. It is sickening. Saying it’s for her family etc…what tosh! It’s purely for her ego.
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June 5, 2023 12:38pm
Maggie Pie

It’s getting worse! 🙁
——————————————————–

“I’ll probably spend the rest of my life trying to find ways to be useful to the place that I call home”

– Jacinda Ardern (1 News)

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/05/jacinda-ardern-made-a-dame-in-kings-birthday-honours/
——————————————————-

Well that shouldn’t be hard. Just pack your bags and hoof-it.
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June 5, 2023 12:47pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Good grief Maggie – you should have a warning attached to that link, I almost threw up over the dog when the image flew up on screen.
  
  What a disgusting excuse for a human being.
  
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  June 5, 2023 12:56pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Tell you what tho Clan….the one I feel really sorry for is Nicky Hagar.
    He looks quite ill.
    
    Either that, or he’s Vegan 🙁
    
    https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/05/nicky-hager-awarded-onzm-for-his-investigative-journalism/
    
    14 2
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    June 5, 2023 1:10pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      And this passed for humour back in 2014…
      
      https://www.metromag.co.nz/society/society-people/the-obituary-of-nicky-hager-died-april-1-2052
      
      7 2
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      June 5, 2023 1:27pm
      - kowtow
        
        I’m surprised Hagar’s been nominated for anything under this regime .
        
        A certain faction of the Labour Party must be spitting tacks , no couldn’t be Robbo said there are no factions in the party .
        
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        June 5, 2023 1:48pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Brilliant Maggz! 😀
        
        6 2
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        June 5, 2023 1:56pm
    - kevn
      
      @Maggie… My recollection that he is a recipient of a wealthy family trust, thus allowing him to grind out the (not) blockbusters without any financial pressure.
      
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      June 5, 2023 4:08pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Probably just had his third booster.
      
      4 2
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      June 5, 2023 5:24pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        😀
        
        4 2
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        June 5, 2023 5:49pm
- Paulus
  
  Isn’t she abroad still trying to find a paying job in addition to her Parliamentary pension.
  No sure she dare come back in the current mood – assume she has bubba with her or is father in charge ?
  
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  June 5, 2023 1:51pm
- Swifty
  
  “Finding ways to be useful….”
  
  No, actually you’ve done quite enough. Any more of your type of ‘helpfulness’ will be the end of us.
  
  Why don’t you just bugger off – start a small business with your bloke and live a quiet life.
  
  The rest of us will be better that way.
  
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  June 5, 2023 3:07pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Agreed Swifty – but this sort of Narcissist isn’t happy unless it is being adored by the masses.
    
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    June 5, 2023 6:41pm
Taieri

Garrick Tremain sums it all up:

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/tremain-archaeology-lecture
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June 5, 2023 12:55pm
Yvette

Since Hipkins in his term as Prime Minister seems so far to have spent most of his efforts in dropping, sidelining or back-benching (until after the up-coming Election) so many of his predecessors policies – of which he was an integral supporter – I am a little bemused as to why she has ben honoured in the way she supposedly has.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do – for if I did do it, and we are honest about our Election chances, Hipkins has undone it.

But not the Tipa Mahuta chaired Maori Advisory Council to Taumata Arowai or the unbridled Te Mana o te Wai Statements (both already in law, so are done and dusted) or their new equally-unspecified Te Oranga o te Taiao (environmental wellbeing) Statements in the revised RMA (coming up to still do).
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June 5, 2023 1:04pm
ClanMcleod

For everyone who says – “covid is over, move on, stop talking about it and just vote National or Act, nothing to see here, you’re making things awkward.”
Read this, think about what you’re saying, and instead of having a go at people who are standing on principles, send this to your relevant politicians who are in denial and refusing to admit the truth.

They are the ones failing to do the right thing, not those refusing to roll over and forget anything ever happened.

A great many journalists, bureaucrats, politicians and ordinary people were complicit in the excesses of the past several years, and as the policies of the pandemic continue to sour, they’ll do anything but talk about it. This more than anything is the reason for the deafening silence surrounding all of these matters. What critique there is will increasingly attach itself to isolated matters, such as school closures, and to specific initiatives in which few participated directly, such as the buying of vaccines. They’ll do everything they can to assign blame in those few areas, where they can’t be blamed themselves.

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/as-enthusiasm-for-the-vaxx-falls

Refusing to acknowledge this cancer and address it means it will never heal.
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June 5, 2023 1:04pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Post WW2 Germany in a nutshell
  
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  June 5, 2023 4:01pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Verrall seems to be very quiet. Eyes open, beware of what is happening while we all watch Chippie and Jaspinda.
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June 5, 2023 1:32pm
Paulus

Sepuloni is quiet as she prepares to make her move to the top after October.
Labour need another woman in charge as there is a view that Labour members will be dominated by women after the election anyway.
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June 5, 2023 1:54pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think there are cleverer females waiting in the wings…and they mightn’t mind having a 3-year gap to shore-up their support structure within the Labour Party (there’s quite a bit of dead and contaminated wood to prune out).
  
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  June 5, 2023 3:34pm
Inthe09

If you’d like to submit a view on the road sign ‘discussion’ here’s a link.

https://www.nzta.govt.nz/about-us/consultations/he-tohu-huarahi-maori-bilingual-traffic-signs-consultation/consultation-materials-english/

I’m highly skeptical it’ll change anything, but they can say they ‘consulted with the public’…
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June 5, 2023 2:03pm
Maggie Pie

Hard to believe this is true …..isn’t it?

https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1665339671553949697
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June 5, 2023 2:20pm
Maggie Pie

Major breakthrough in hunt for murderer of 71 year old grandma dialysis patient in Northland.
Police have collected sufficient DNA evidence to identify the offender ….. and will be taking blood samples from all males in the region who fit the description.

_ $tuffed

Tweets now appearing that police have set up road-blocks at each end of Kaikohe to prevent mass exodus.
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June 5, 2023 3:02pm
Ghost

I would like to think this is a joke article and there aren’t people this stupid

https://i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/300897291/no-tina-from-turners-didnt-die
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June 5, 2023 3:08pm
Sparrow

Why get all upset about Ardern getting a Damehood. Ofcourse she does not deserve it nor do any of the previous PMs whether the award is a leftover from the imperial era or some new fangled NZ award for the republicans. They are all shit and meaningless as proved by awarding Ardern one. These so called awards come with the territory name one PM who has refused an award. Its snouts in the trough. Nice pension, cheap travel for ever, cushy directorships, speaking circuit etc etc.
In the meantime we have paid and continue to pay for this form of corruption, and the country continues its downward path under all governments. Its the way it is and has been and will continue. Its about power, control, money and ego. That’s human beings. Do I have an alternative No.
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June 5, 2023 3:33pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

This must be where Special K gets his ideas from:

https://thepoliticalinsider.com/aoc-mocked-for-suggesting-violent-crime-will-go-down-if-we-build-fewer-jails/
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June 5, 2023 4:25pm
kowtow

This is bigly.

Today’s UK Daily Telegraph, front page headline ;
Lockdown benefits ‘a drop in the bucket compared to costs’

Citing a landmark study by Lund and Johns Hopkins University .

Our te media pardy often recycle UK news to cover their “world news” sections.

This will be very interesting .
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June 5, 2023 4:41pm
kevn

@Kowtow… Never happen so soon after the Kings gonging of arden.
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June 5, 2023 5:01pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

OK, just as you wake up from your afternoon nap, and decide to order in, instead of cooking:

BAN DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE!
Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there.
Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.
Dihydrogen monoxide:
· is also known as hydroxyl acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
· contributes to the “greenhouse effect.”
· may cause severe burns.
· contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
· accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
· may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
· has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Contamination is reaching epidemic proportions!
Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage in the midwest, and recently California.
Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
· as an industrial solvent and coolant.
· in nuclear power plants.
· in the production of Styrofoam.
· as a fire retardant.
· in many forms of cruel animal research.
· in the distribution of pesticides.
· as an additive in certain “junk-foods” and other food products.
Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal. The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!
The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its “importance to the economic health of this nation.” In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.
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June 5, 2023 5:02pm
- Mike
  
  I think one of the Green MPs (Sue Kedgely?) was sucked in by this hoax years ago.
  
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  June 5, 2023 5:37pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yes Mike. She got taken to the cleaners.
    In some ways sad, because she did not check and verify – just flew off the handle and went into hiding.
    
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    June 5, 2023 6:10pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It also caught out National MP Jacquie Dean
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mp-tries-to-ban-water/XM4GJ7XG3WC4ANBIFP2IVFNANE/
      
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      June 5, 2023 7:04pm
ClanMcleod

Because the polar caps are melting, we’re all doomed, because climate change…….

Antarctica Sensation: Ice Shelves Surrounding the Continent Grew in Overall Size From 2009-2019

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/06/04/antarctica-sensation-ice-shelves-surrounding-the-continent-grew-in-overall-size-from-2009-2019/
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June 5, 2023 6:53pm
Maggie Pie

Tennis bestie asks impertinent queston late on Kings Birthday Weekend….

According to StatsNZ, the populaion of Iranians in NZ exceeds 5000. The majority, (72%), redide in Auckland. Should we be at all concerbned?

https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1665608101632909315
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June 5, 2023 6:54pm
Surely Knott

Stuff Article by Olivia Caldwell, is an opinion piece lamenting how mean everyone is being to Ardern about her Dameship.

Caldwell’s job history timeline shows
Stuff Journalist Mar 2017 – Nov 2019,
TV Journalist for “the Project” 2018-
NZ Parliament May 2020 – Nov 2020

How can you credibly be a Stuff political commentator when you recently worked at Parliament for the govt.

Here is an article published May 2020 when she appears to have been working for Parliament?!!. “Jacinda Arderns near perfect brand personality politics and ….”

No wonder trust is low in Journalism. Journalists should be independent commentators holding power to account.

I don’t care what her opinion of Arderns’ Dameship is. She was a journalist in Parliament in early 2020 as they locked down the country and force vaccinated, masked and passported us. Do your damn job. You were a journalist in one of the most important and contentious periods of modern history. Where’s the behind the scenes whistle blowing article about how our rights were taken and what happened and what was said. What were you asked to do and what policies and propoganda were released.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jacinda-arderns-near-perfect-brand-personality-politics-and-how-marketing-can-shape-elections/76IJXYEWWIEBZXPTOHYWUBOWSU/
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June 5, 2023 8:00pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Surely Knott – you’re right, but what I found bizarre about the article are John Key’s defence of the fact that all former PMs get an award, as though it’s a rite of passage.
  It should only be given for exceptional performance, not as a gold star for finishing the egg and spoon race which is what he’s basically saying.
  More to the point, Ardern is without doubt the worst PM with the worst government in NZ history. She should be in jail on charges, not being feted. Nauseating.
  
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  June 5, 2023 8:47pm

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