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July 25, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 25 July 2023

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General Debate

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Warren

The Labour Party and Government left in disarray after Justice Minister Kiri Allen has to resign.
Devoid of talent and ideas Labour need to go back to their past there use by dated older Senior MP’S and bullies Andrew Little, David Parker, Willie Jackson Grant Robertson and MeganWoods to show stability and help the arrogant Prime Minister Chris Hipkins to pull a rabbit out of his bag of tricks to win the upcoming General Election in October.
I actually think that those that installed this useless out of there depth Government deserve these bunch of hypocrites as their Government but for the damage that they have already inflicted and what else they could inflict if they do get another term.
A vote for Labour is a vote for more of the same with the help of a Green’s and Maori Party set to tax the shit out of New Zealander’s to inflict more pain on those that keep our work force in a job.
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July 25, 2023 8:01am
- Warren
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/labour-and-chris-hipkins-crash-in-latest-poll-gap-with-national-widest-since-2017/R6MWQK2TQBGK5FY3ZKOEYGVYPU
  The polls have finally turned to give the Nats and Act the end the deserve in the latest Mills Talbot poll Labour downtown 31% , Nats on 36 %.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:46am
  - Warren Murray
    
    Old news – it was a fortnight ago.
    
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    July 25, 2023 12:10pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    That poll is from 2 weeks ago
    
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    July 25, 2023 12:29pm
- Warren Murray
  
  I found the following footnote at the end of a Stuff report interesting:
  “at 4pm, Hipkins announced a new ministerial team and tried to move on. He listed his plans for the week….. and said Ginny Andersen would take over as justice minister. He also used the ministerial reshuffle to clean up another issue, moving David Parker ‘at his request’ out of the revenue portfolio.”
  This is the latest revelation of Parker’s petulance since Hipkins binned the wealth tax. Parker publicly criticised Hipkins over the decision earlier this month, but it didn’t get the attention it deserved thanks to media interest in Tory Whanau’s drunken antics.
  
  What is more interesting is the amount of time and effort that has been put into this new tax proposal despite Ardern ruling it out when she was PM. As we all know, back in April, Parker produced a very questionable report alleging that the wealthiest New Zealanders were dodging their tax obligations.
  
  Tax and spend remains part of the core DNA of Labour, and Hipkins’ decision to push it off the table ahead of the election hasn’t changed Labour’s addiction to tax.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:50am
  - Ehlana
    
    “very questionable” in the same way it’s warmish in southern Europe right now.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:10am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  A vote for these small parties is helping vote Labour green TPM coalition of chaos back in
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:55am
  - mawm
    
    G – you have obviously forgotten how democracy works. To remind you; voters are given the choice to vote for people/parties that have policies that they feel represent them – their beliefs, ideas on how our communities/economy should function or particular issues such as the loss of freedoms/failure to address injuries policies. It is also their choice to vote for a party that they think will get rid of another party……even if that party does not address their concerns/beliefs. That choice is entirely up to those individuals and does not require the tiresome endless mantra espoused by you to what are obviously informed and thoughtful voters. That you do so reminds one of the failures of your particular party/candidate.
    
    We still live in a democracy although there are many debatable issues and, thanks to our generous host, those issues are aired on this blog.
    
    As a life-long centre right voter I look upon Luxon and the party he has shaped as not representing me or my concerns. He is welcome to the centre left which a decade ago would have been viewed as strongly left wing. How I will vote is my concern.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:38am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      No where did I tell you how to vote, but this slippery Hipkins is relying on centre right voters to ware their vote
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:23pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Agree. Ten years ago I was a member of the National Party. Just unthinkable now.
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:30pm
  - leoj
    
    The fact remains that the coalition of chaos consistently polls higher than the Nats.
    
    There is a reason that the namby-pamby party cannot break through 36%, BARELY 1 IN 3!!! It is headed by soft-soap Luxon.
    
    The same Luxon is against having a referendum on the real meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi and that is largely why the namby-pambies cannot break 36%.
    
    ACT are on record that a referendum is a bottom-line. They will sit on the cross benches if the namby-pambies piss against the wind and say no. That will force another election. Then watch the Nats lose multiple seats and support.
    
    Luxon and the Nats are their own worst enemy because they are weak. Sleep-walking into power will not cut it this time around.
    
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    July 25, 2023 12:56pm
- Handyman
  
  From Stuff:
  “The Opposition has been accused of “shameful” politicisation of Kiri Allan’s mental health difficulties – and alleged drink-driving incident.”
  
  No! It is alleged mental health issues and actual drink driving car crash.
  
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  July 25, 2023 7:28pm
  - lemuzz
    
    I agree. If she hadn’t had an accident, the police most likely would not have had reason to bag her and arrest her. It wasn’t anything to do with her mental state that the accident happened.
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:53pm
    - Ghost
      
      A person with mental health issues is more likely to turn to alcohol and or drugs to self medicate, so you cannot say they aren’t connected because no one knows.
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:05pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

So when did prioritising emotions over logic become an acceptable way to behave?

Unlike Chippy and many others, I don’t believe Kiri Allen has mental health problems. Her immature and self indulgent words and actions remind me of my toddler, unable to comprehend the adult world and responding by shouting and stamping her feet when she did not get her way.

It’s not just Kiri. Feelings have become the basis for decision making for so many people, permeating public discourse. A sense of entitlement is a manifestation; so is putting one’s own interest ahead of the common weal.

They fiddle while Rome burns
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July 25, 2023 8:01am
- kowtow
  
  There have been hints from Wellington “insiders” , the likes of Soper on HDPA that Allan’s antics are well known around the beltway ( and presumably the press gallery)
  
  As always the public , who pays their bills , are kept very conveniently for the Blob , out of the picture.
  
  Hardly democratic.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:38am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    If her ex mss as Jed a complaint she will be history
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:56am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      You might want to proof read 😂
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:31pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  They set Rome on fire, too. Let’s not forget that.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:55am
- Philview
  
  I have been pondering the mental health implosions in the National Party of 2020. Todd Mueller got a little bit of sympathy from the media but they enjoyed what was happening to him and the Party’s electoral chances.. Jamie Lee Ross probably got no sympathy and they enjoyed tearing him to pieces. Kiri is getting a more sympathetic tone from the media but they are at least reporting that Labour could be finished.
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:16pm
Opie

This fron David Seymour yesterday:

New Zealand needs to choose. It can be a place with third world roads, lawless communities, inflation, and division, or we can start taking positive steps towards towards having the country New Zealand could be.

He really does seem to be the only one to speak positively about the future of this country…
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July 25, 2023 8:04am
- crikey
  
  Opie: …and why have we got to this state of affairs? Through distortion and manipulation of the ToW by Maori activists, condoned by this government, promoted by the media and supported by complicit courts.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:25am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  What, for setting the bloody obvious?
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:57am
  - wsk12345
    
    Well maybe it’s time your bestie made a strong statement about the shit we are in and how he’s gonna “lead” NZ out of it!
    
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    July 25, 2023 1:19pm
- John Loveridge
  
  Seymour and I have our differences, but I can’t see a viable alternative for my party vote. I’ll almost certainly give my electorate vote to National as the only remote possibility of unseating the entrenched Labour MP, but it’s ACT that makes the most sense to me.
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:34pm
  - Grunter
    
    Same here – although I’m beginning to calculate the damage I can do to the Labour List by using my electoral vote on a hopeless Labour candidate that then displaces someone like David Parker (List only)
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:01pm
  - jon
    
    Ditto here JL, need to get *i m proud to be a socialist* McAnulty out of the Wairarapa seat.
    
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    July 25, 2023 8:24pm
- Clownworld
  
  Positive steps could include
  1) Ensuring freedom of speech including those who wish to promote pro life messages and hope are protected and can speak freely.
  2) Protect the vunerable from being euthanised.
  3) Politicians who are elected servants of the people at least listen to concerns of protesters.
  4) Leave or disagree with global bodies who only have their interests to protect not NZers.
  5) Invest in New Zealand not throw taxpayers money into the rest of the world.
  6) Put a cap on govt spending
  
  Feel free to add to the list.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:53pm
Kiwiguy

A funny thing happened in my niece’s class last week.
The art teacher asked the kids to draw/paint an iconic Auckland scene.
When she saw what my niece had drawn, she was most unhappy.
Amongst all the predictable artwork scenes of sky towers, Rangitotos, One Tree Hills etc, was my niece’s artwork of….
A crime scene!

At first I wondered why the teacher didn’t see the funny side of it, then I remembered which way teachers usually vote…
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July 25, 2023 8:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Lefties. Born without a sense of humour, and it can not be installed.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:36am
- Clownworld
  
  Surprised it wasn’t a mass of orange road cones surrounding a sink hole.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:55pm
Captain Mainwaring

So the Ministerial lightweight Ginny Andersen gets Justice in addition to police.
For the sake of her stress levels it’s a good thing it will only be for three months.
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July 25, 2023 8:07am
- igm
  
  Imagine the damage she will cause in three months!
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:11am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    She won’t even care.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:38am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Captain, I’m entirely unsure why Hipkins didn’t just stick a cardboard cutout of Allan at the desk for three months. In fact, he could have carried it around with him and had it standing behind him at pressers. No one would have noticed the difference. Though I guess than same could be said for Andersen. Or Davis. Sepuloni. Mahuta. Well, for pretty much all of the cabinet. In fact, there would be a case to be made that cardboard cutouts would do a better job…..
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:18am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    One of the daughters flew into Gisborne last night from Melbourne.
    
    The terminal was nearly empty at 8:20pm…and so you can’t miss the enormous photographic banner of Kiri Allan – Your local MP.. pasted across the back wall.
    
    I wonder how long it will remain there.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:25am
    - Bloody Dago
      
      Pop a big clown nose on that banner picture will assist in its removal🤡🤡🤡
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:57am
    - Martonman
      
      Should be gone by lunchtime but definitely by 14/10/23
      
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      July 25, 2023 2:06pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    OK, group photo for a team cardboard cutout.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:40am
  - I remember when
    
    To be fair to Sepuloni, I thought Chris Hipkins could have used her comments about Kiri Allan’s actions –
    it would have made his press statements shorter too.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:21pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Do not let her near a ministerial EV.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:22am
  - A deplorable
    
    Talking of ministerial EVs, who’s paying for the car Kiri smashed up? As she was over the legal alcohol limit the Crown’s insurer will surely decline any claim. So the hapless taxpayer, again!
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:37am
    - Scooter
      
      You’d think media would try and interview or get a comment from them or are things being hushed up ie persons known to Kiri?
      
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      July 25, 2023 9:52am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Ryan Bridge was asking Chippie who would pick up the cost for repairs to both vehicles.
        
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        July 25, 2023 10:34am
      - kowtow
        
        hullkiwi
        
        I’m amazed ( not) that the fearless members of te pahti media haven’t door knocked the victim owner of the other vehicle to get his / her views on how unsettling it is to be without wheels …….
        
        …….afterall the bastards do the ‘death knock’ to family members in many other instances.
        
        Surely there’s a major “public interest” issue here .
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:38am
    - rouppe
      
      That is a good point. Add in the damaged ute to the claim
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:18am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Insurance will not pay if she received an infringement notice for drink driving, maybe if it is leased, but no one else gets that cover.
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:15am
      - Paulus
        
        Taxpayers will pay for the lot plus Allen’s fines.
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:17am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Taxpayers will pay for the lot plus Allen’s fines.
        
        I doubt it.
        
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        July 25, 2023 12:33pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      The Crown does not insure for minor stuff. It self insures – it would be pointless to outsource replacement of minor things like cars to an insurance company – you dont need the money as you have a huge cashflow of tax….
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:28am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        A slush fund. We have one for holidays. Destinations and time ever changing, until we decide to blow it.
        But the Government’s slush fund tin is empty, and will be for many years.
        
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        July 25, 2023 10:45am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yes, our company self insurances cars too.
        
        Automatic loss of job and no cover from actual insurance, what a mess
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:17am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Its cheaper to self insure for that which you can afford to replace.
        Insurance companies charge for overheads and profits as well as making good to the customer .
        The government is better off accepting the risk.
        
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        July 25, 2023 12:15pm
      - rouppe
        
        So a question for the self-insurers…
        
        How does that work practically in a situation like this? As the ute owner, who would I approach?
        
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        July 25, 2023 2:55pm
      - JimBobJoe
        
        @rouppe. If the Ute was uninsured then the owner would seek recompense from the driver of the other vehicle. If the Ute was insured the insurer of the Ute would request recompense from the driver of the other vehicle.
        
        The Public Service (not sure what department probably Parliamentary Services ) as the owner of the vehicle at fault I assume, would have the option of paying the insurer of the Ute OR requiring Ms Allen to recompense the Insurer of the Ute.
        
        Bottom line the Ute owner and their insurer have a couple of parties to pursue for recompense…
        
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        July 25, 2023 5:30pm
- Prince
  
  A certain ambivalence there.
  Monday – Police Day. Catch those crims, put ’em away. Keep the public safe.
  Tuesday – Justice. Delay court hearings. Reduce prison stats. Order more surveillance bracelets. Be kind.
  Wednesday thru Friday – Mental Health days.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:23am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Saturday and Sunday – days off.
    Try and get a cop to attend a home burglary on the weekend.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:47am
- pdm
  
  Capt -will she last 3 months?
  
  Shee seems very `scatty’ and disorganised to me.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:26am
  - Mark Hanley
    
    My wife expressed sympathy for Kiri’s mental health issues last night?
    
    I asked my wife whether her concern for Kiri’s mental health outweighed her concern for the people affected by Kiri and her colleagues’ actions in government?
    
    Concern for the people who are mysteriously dying from heart disease, strokes, and cancers at record rates since the roll out of the covid jab?
    
    Concern for the parents whose children are being exposed to more violence and drugs as a result of NZ’s burgeoning gang membership (gangs get money for those harleys from somewhere)
    
    Concern for the many people who have become victims of NZ’s rampant growth in burglaries and theft?
    
    Concern for those in hospital recovering from the huge increase in serious assaults under the Labour Government and concern for those morgues?
    
    Concern for the multiples of children whose families have been forced onto government benefits?
    
    Concern for sick people who are dying because public medical facilities and staff are overrun.
    
    Concern for the children whose farcical education (those that bothered to turn up) for the last 6 years means their ability to earn a living legitimately is an impossible dream,
    
    Watching the utter hypocrisy of Brooke Van Velden and Chloe Swarbrick expressing their concerns for Kiri whilst they remain silent on the unprecedented amount of people (in all age groups) dying early in NZ, further illustrates what a bunch of idiots the average NZ voters are
    
    How can these politicians and public servants keep getting away with such hypocrisy and lies?
    
    They get away with it because the NZ public lets them.
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:14am
    - kowtow
      
      Funny innit , for as long as I can remember drink driving has been one of te potty media’s most vilified and excoriated activities that man can engage it .
      It’s so dangerous , selfish , fills the A+E , upsets the heroes of the emergency services , weighs the justice system so heavily , upsets what little is left of Protestant sensibilities , pisses off green MP’s no need ( double evil of drink and ICE vehicles) etc
      
      And suddenly overnight , almost miraculously we’re commanded to be understanding of MH issues ………
      
      How very queer.
      
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      July 25, 2023 9:45am
      - Libertarians are right
        
        “activities that man can engage in”
        Kiri Allan isn’t a man so is immune to responsibility for drink driving in the eyes of the Left/media.
        
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        July 25, 2023 10:00am
      - Ruahine
        
        Drug taking and driving is O.K. though say Labour and the Greeds.
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:27am
    - kevn
      
      Mark… Great recipe for domestic bliss.
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:10am
    - rouppe
      
      And what did your wife say?
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:20am
    - Albie
      
      Jeez Mark, while I don’t disagree with anything you have said, I bet your wife had wished she kept her thoughts to herself on that one!
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:51am
    - wsk12345
      
      Curious as to the wife’s response….. and who she votes for?
      
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      July 25, 2023 1:22pm
    - Mark Hanley
      
      Did I say wife? I should have said 6th wife//
      
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      July 25, 2023 3:20pm
      - Keith White
        
        I see you’re a man who likes to live dangerously!
        
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        July 25, 2023 5:15pm
    - Clownworld
      
      Mark well said.
      
      Apathy and complacency make for a compliant easily manipulated population.
      
      NZ needs a paradigm shift or else it will become a nightmare.
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:04pm
- krazykiwi
  
  [Repost] Let’s not forget that “Labour’s Hutt South MP Ginny Andersen has admitted that in 2017 she knew about a secretive rent deal that saw $4500 in taxpayer cash funnelled into the local Labour Party each year.”
  
  There was once a time politicians were expected to have integrity, the minister of justice doubly so.
  
  Not any more.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:27am
  - igm
    
    She also flouted Ardern’s lockdown rules.
    
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    July 25, 2023 8:31am
    - KKKKatee
      
      Ardern’s parents flouted lockdown rules and drive home to Morrinsville from Wellington on Anzac Day 2020 according to the neighbours.
      
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      July 25, 2023 2:59pm
  - peterwn
    
    Especially as Ginny was the one rabbiting on about alleged ‘corruption’ in the run up to the 2017 election. Ginny does not seem to have much to say about corruption nowadays but if National/Act win in October she will be opening fire on corruption pretty quickly.
    
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    July 25, 2023 8:36am
  - burt
    
    It’s different when Labour do it!
    
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    July 25, 2023 8:53am
  - kevn
    
    Lib… Along with much reduced tolerance to the booze.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:08am
- Simon
  
  The stress from running a fake system must be huge. Being a diversity hire, which is most of Labo, which means you shouldnt be there in the first place, having huge resources, almost unchecked power, and it just keeps getting worse.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:28am
  - Matt Long
    
    Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy; Kamala Harris is the best argument against Diversity Hires.
    Entire Labour Caucas; Hold My Beer!!!
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:54am
  - Burtland
    
    impostor syndrome within Labour should be at an all time high – but is it ?
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:42am
- peterwn
  
  Both portfolios are fairly ‘stable’ at this stage. The only issue is creating a ‘ram raid’ offence which is only window dressing. She cannot really do anything within the next three months but continue running the portfolios to the framework already set by her predecessors with the blessing of the PM at the time. At this stage Ministers should be praising the Government’s efforts or explaining how they are going to improve things. Ginny is on the fringe of things at this stage as she is not really involved with interaction with the Green Party which is or should be a big thing for Chris H and co. Ginny’s main worry would be Bish and Lady Hawk. While the Greens could gain potential votes with their tax and other policies, it could cause a net loss of votes for Labour/Greens collectively.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:32am
  - Flossie
    
    Who is Lady Hawk?
    
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    July 25, 2023 1:26pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Chris Bishop’s dog (samoyed).
      
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      July 25, 2023 3:25pm
      - Jack5
        
        Chris Bishop has a good taste in dogs, then.
        
        Great animals – from the reindeer herding people of northern Russia and Siberia.
        
        We pronounce it “Samoid”, but the Samoyed people pronounce the word “Sam-ah-yed”.
        
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        July 25, 2023 4:31pm
- backster
  
  Poto is still there somewhere to guide her
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:37am
- Loddenthinks
  
  It’s for much less than 3 months, thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The House will rise probably no later than 31 August, so not much more than a month for the intellectual lightweight, deer in the headlights, completely-out-of-her-depth-with-one-major-portfolio-let-alone-two Ginny Anderson to stuff anything up.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:59am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  This is the Minister who wanted to know how Matu Tangi Matua Reid was able to get a gun license to be able to buy a shotgun………
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:56am
  - Flossie
    
    I saw her actually say she’d be “interested to know”. I thought that somewhat mildly put – she should be demanding to know!
    
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    July 25, 2023 1:27pm
Scooter

Interesting that the media haven’t interviewed the owner of the car Kiri hit. I wonder if there’s some connection there between her and the owner?
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July 25, 2023 8:13am
- The Redbaiter
  
  “Interesting that the media haven’t interviewed the owner of the car Kiri hit.”
  
  The NZ mainstream media have an aversion to any truth that might damage the left, and this is another such case. An interview with the owner of the damaged ute may reveal something like this-
  
  [Mod – no rumours please, thanks]
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:45am
  - The Redbaiter
    
    Fair enough. Maybe we’re permitted then to ask some pertinent questions. Like-
    
    1) Why, a short time after the accident were police not at the Kiri Allen accident scene but seen searching with dogs near Roseneath Park? (as Stuff have reported)
    
    2) Why did it take the police more than two hours after the accident to show up at the local police station with Ms Allen in the back of their car? (as Stuff have reported)
    
    3) Why has she been charged with “refusing to accompany a police officer”? (public knowledge)
    
    Hoping this is acceptable.
    
    [Mod – Thank you]
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:33am
  - Matt Long
    
    The MSM also have an aversion to admitting victims of crime deserve sympathy and a voice.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:56am
- Albert_Ross
  
  Isn’t it possible that the car owner doesn’t want to be identified or to speak to the media? That is his or her right
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:31pm
  - kowtow
    
    Never stopped the bastards before , did it.
    
    Door knocks after tragedy , cameras thrust in face , hanging around after court , chasing people down the street …….
    
    …….suddenly the easily bought , sold their integrity ( what little they’ve ever had) cheaply members of ti pahti mediah , find a conscience .
    
    I don’t think so.
    
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    July 25, 2023 1:17pm
    - Albert_Ross
      
      All true, but it’s still the case that their target has the right to say no.
      
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      July 25, 2023 3:12pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Sure, but in that case the media would say ‘the Ute’s owner declined to comment’
        
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        July 25, 2023 7:25pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I wonder if Labour used public funds to silence people using lawfare.
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:37pm
G152

Where are all those libor elected who should be taking on the crims position and title?
Or is that group are so bereft of talent and ability that there is simply no-one else?
Come on Chippy at least pretend youre the leader and lead
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July 25, 2023 8:14am
Waipuk

You don’t see this on the news.

https://youtu.be/IQHMPd9JV2k

The commissars don’t want to let the average peasant know what is happening out there. Ignorance it bliss.
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July 25, 2023 8:21am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Ardern has torn this country to shreds. She is fully responsible for the dangerous divisions that are appearing.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:20am
  - mawm
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/barry-soper-jacinda-ardern-left-chris-hipkins-to-clean-up-the-mess-she-created/E4LEEHXHGVFFDO7YFO2PP5L3C4/
    
    Barry Soper has the same opinion. Here’s the link for those who have not read it.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:04pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  That was infomrative. A small group of the normal rabble rousers screaming and threatening.
  
  Useful idiots the majority of them – if they get their wish of a return to Rangatira rule in NZ, then most of those noise makers will get zip… some occasional handouts for enforcing a rangatiras commands but otherwise the benefits all follow to the Rangatira and family. Idiots.
  
  What is truly ironic is the broad left supporting the reestablishment of feudal power structures. Something the traditional left have campaigned against for centuries….
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:41am
- OlderChas
  
  Shocking behaviour. Is there still a charge of “threatening behaviour”? Inciting violence? Inciting a riot? Seriously – would the person being escorted be alive today had he not been protected by the police? I truly despair for the future of my country and am often thankful that I do not have too long left to live in it.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:42am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Most unfair that those people were not able to see and hear the presentation and speech.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:00am
- miltonF
  
  Imagine if a bunch of non Māori tried this stunt at a Marae. The violence meted out would be unprecedented.
  
  The “protestors” are clearly still stuck in stone-age “might is right” violent ideology. It explains a lot when you look at the crime stats.
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:40pm
PeeJay

I see that the country singer Jason Aldean’s song “Try that in a small town”, that caused meltdown on the woke left in the US , has effectively had a Streisand effect – the publicity about this ‘offensive song’ has resulted in an increase of some 999% in streaming since the woke left tried to ban him. Video views have also gone from 350k to 16m!

Some of this will be curiosity (guilty) but most of this will be like the Bud light reaction where regular folks are sick and tired of being told what’s right and what’s wrong.

Whether you like the song or not, whether you find the message offensive or not, you’ve got to admit it’s a spectacular, and hilarious, own goal by the offended woke left in the US – don’t watch this little known artist sing this song we don’t like. Joe public – hmm, maybe we should watch it or listen to it!
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July 25, 2023 8:22am
- Albert_Ross
  
  Just like the US right are doing for Barbie, then
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:39am
  - All_on_Red
    
    More like the Gen Z guys are loving how sigma Ken goes the full Chad and takes things over…
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:57am
  - RightNow
    
    Wicked burn!!!
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:38am
- Ghost
  
  Haven’t heard the song until now, good song, fits for NZ as well
  
  Try That In A Small Town
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:47am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    A Patriot being a Patriot. Um, the left hate that.
    I have heard the song many times.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:15am
Klondike

Look good on the CV just keep your head down for 3 months then be a Board Diversity hire until retirement.
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July 25, 2023 8:26am
Benedict Yu

I see the left are waking up that Kellie Jay Keen is returning in September.

Martyn Bradbury is calling for her to be refused entry.

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/07/21/posie-parker-is-returning-to-nz-in-september-why-officials-must-block-her-entry/

I am surprised at the comments. A majority are supporting her being allowed to enter and speak.

There is no doubt that this will be another shit show. It is the last thing Chris Hipkins will want. If she is allowed to speak, expect a heavy police presence.
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July 25, 2023 8:27am
- Simon
  
  Luxon should be on stage with her on principle. The [Mod – deleted, stop coming here trolling and writing offensive crap] and dripping hatred from the left would be worth 5 pts for National.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:32am
  - Flossie
    
    What exactly do you mean by “autistic”?
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:40am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:40pm
      - Flossie
        
        I know what autism is – close family member is autistic. I was wondering why Simon referenced “autistic screeching”. My family member never does anything like that and it seemed a very unnecessary comment.
        
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        July 25, 2023 1:31pm
      - Jack5
        
        A callous use of an adjective by poster Simon in his 8.32 post.
        
        Bright people who some argue had symptoms of autism include Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein.
        
        My experience of autistic people is that they tend to be withdrawn and gentle and far from “screeching”.
        
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        July 25, 2023 4:43pm
  - Yvette
    
    Also, what exactly do you mean by “autistic”?
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:07am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:40pm
- Raphael
  
  I thought Bomber was becoming a little more tolerant of free speech, it seems like he is backsliding.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:36am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    He’s actually concerned about how the Left will respond.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:36pm
- Nickc2
  
  No doubt Marama Davidson will lead the charge on behalf of her parliamentary colleagues.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:39am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Clearly Bomber B is calling for free speech, human rights and the rights of women to call off……so much for the left being inclusive.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:44am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Heavy Police presence? How many will be hiding around the corner, and on the orders of who?
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:44am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    They won’t. Police are being investigated for the last riot. There will be many police present. Of course she could still be barred entry.
    
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    July 25, 2023 1:32pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Chris Luxon should be endorsing her. Lots of brownie points, or does he to not support free speech?
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:46am
  - Che Guava
    
    Luxon should, but he won’t. He is so averse to taking any controversial position (or so-called controversial position) that he is next to useless. He almost certainly won’t stand up for this woman, yet people expect him to win the election and then turn the country around, necessarily requiring upsetting a great many people? These things are incompatible. If he can’t do the smaller things, there’s no reason to expect that he’ll do the big things either.
    
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    July 25, 2023 8:59am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      While it’s true that getting the country headed back in the right direction will require Government action that will cause upset, it’s equally true that winning the election in order to be able to take such action requires not causing upset.
      
      For certain there is incompatibility here, but it’s not Luxon’s fault. It’s not any politician’s fault. It’s the fault of voters who as a body claim that they want honesty from politicians and then vote for politicians who promise easy, quick and painless solutions.
      
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      July 25, 2023 9:45am
      - Che Guava
        
        You’re assuming that standing up for her will upset most people. I wonder what your evidence is for this assumption. No doubt it will upset the usual crowd of losers and propagandised drones, but I suspect that most people would welcome it and see it as a positive move. Likewise, I cannot quantify my suspicion, but my instincts tell me I’m correct. I always site Trump 2016 as an excellent example of how the received wisdom counts for very little in reality.
        
        What exactly do Luxon and National have to lose anyway? National are consistently as good as level-pegging with the worst government in history. Clearly they are doing something wrong. Perhaps this is because Luxon doesn’t have any political instincts and his advisers live in the echo chamber that completely misses the fact that a good proportion of people are ready for a fresh approach.
        
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        July 25, 2023 10:06am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        A couple of days ago Kellie Jay Keen refined her goals. In an interview. She wants 2 things.
        
        An end to biological males playing in women’s sports and using women’s spaces.
        
        An end to medical and surgical transitioning of children.
        
        That’s it. The end 😳 no other agenda.
        
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        July 25, 2023 12:38pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Regrettably that is true. Here’s Bromhead’s view of “hallowed” Labour Leader Norm Kirk’s 1972 election efforts:
        
        https://i.imgflip.com/7tmr5f.jpg
        
        Complete with musical notes,,,Labour Party action songs! ALL TOGETHER NOW! Keep right on down the middle of the road….
        
        Still, the main point is that Labour, and the Left in general, make real, permanent changes when in power which National then simply go along with.
        
        Admittedly in our current case Labour have not done so in the Classical Marxist direction desired by the likes of “Bomber” Bradbury – but they sure as hell have done it in terms of empowering Iwi across all sectors of society.
        
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        July 25, 2023 12:58pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Is Seymour going to endorse her. No, he isn’t either. Not with 2.5 months to an election, irrespective what any of us think.
      
      For Luxon & Seymour, the need is to concentrate on issues that will win over floating voters in the “middle ground”, not become embroiled in what is portrayed by the media as issues on the margins of NZ life.
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:22am
  - Raphael
    
    Endorsing her would be a tad too far PR wise.
    While I do agree with much of what Posie Parker has to say, from a PR perspective she has been tainted by the Nazi supporters who attended the Australia rallies (who I agree were not encouraged or supported by her, we’re talking PR here, not reality)
    
    Luxon should be advocating for her right, to both come to NZ and to speak without being physically assaulted by those creepy misogynists Lal incited though.
    
    There definitely should be an outcry against media inciting violence (and I will note that a certain Green MP tried to defend a war criminal who incited others to genocide)
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:17am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Even war criminals deserve a defence lawyer. The problem was that golriz ghahraman tried to hide her role.
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:39pm
      - Raphael
        
        Yes, but posing for a photo with him like a fan girl was a bit much.
        
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        July 25, 2023 1:03pm
      - Trev
        
        An ex Green MP Keith Locke used to support Pol Pot who presided over genocide in Cambodia.
        
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        July 25, 2023 4:14pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      … from a PR perspective she has been tainted by the Nazi supporters who attended the Australia rallies…
      
      Just a side note on that. I find it amazing that the MSM, which is quick to dox any number of people they don’t like, never shifted off their backsides to track those people back to the homes or bases or in any other way identify them. And the “Nazis” didn’t do anything further to draw attention to themselves to promote their cause.
      
      So were they really “Nazis” – or was it some group who knew how to kill a protest movement they didn’t approve of?
      
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      July 25, 2023 1:02pm
      - The Redbaiter
        
        Tom Hunter- “So were they really “Nazis” – or was it some group who knew how to kill a protest movement they didn’t approve of?”
        
        They were real Nazis. Followers of Thomas Sewell who (in Australia) proudly and openly proclaims his belief in National Socialism.
        
        They were at the rally because-
        
        1) the Victorian Police show a marked lack of enthusiasm for protecting the right to freedom of political expression and
        
        2) Antifa were there to (as they had advocated) physically attack and shut down Posey Parker. The Nazis (dislike them as you may) were the only group in Australia who stood against Antifa and not so much for Posey Parker, but for her right to speak without being assaulted by communist thugs.
        
        Einstein said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Nazis are rising and attracting support as a counter action to communists dominating govt in Victoria and elsewhere.
        
        There was a recent raid on National Socialist Party members in South Australia, conducted by Australian Federal Police and state Counter Terrorism Police. Seven properties were searched and one person was arrested.
        
        Sure readers agree that whether it is imposed by Communists or Nazis, tyranny always brings an awful and degenerate state.
        
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        July 25, 2023 4:04pm
  - The Redbaiter
    
    Steve Otto(North Shore)- “Chris Luxon should be endorsing her.”
    
    Agree. So should David Seymour. Both of them (IMHO) should also be endorsing the bravest man in New Zealand, Mr Julian Batchelor.
    
    I guess their silence (on both issues) really says all we need to know.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:04pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Julian Batchelor is quite a guy. I talked with him after the Orewa shambles. He tells a great story of how this all started. Up at 3am and the lights rarely out before 9pm. I asked him what drives him and why. He simply said he was committed after finding the version of the Treaty is a rogue version. Re-written by the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975, and further changed to include ‘forestry and fisheries’ by Sit Hugh Kawharu in 1989. The Treaty today is nothing but lies!
      
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      July 26, 2023 8:54am
- KKKKatee
  
  What’s Bradbury’s problem with women having a voice?
  
  2 1
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  July 25, 2023 3:03pm
  - The Redbaiter
    
    KKKKate- “What’s Bradbury’s problem with women having a voice?”
    
    Mr Bradbury thinks a demonstration against Posey Parker will have a negative effect on Labour’s chances in the closely following general election.
    
    Like most on the far left, he is only supportive of free speech when it suits him as a strategy.
    
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    July 25, 2023 5:38pm
mandk

Mark this day.

Prepare to be shocked.

There is a cartoon in Stuff that ridicules Labour!
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July 25, 2023 8:28am
- Biscuit
  
  No, thought, mandk, you MUST be mistaken.
  
  Stuff? Ridicule their political bedmates? Impossible!
  
  But, after checking, I see you are correct!
  
  Maybe I should resurrect the subsciption to the ragsheet that I kerboshed many, many, many moons ag … oh, C’MON, Biscuit.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:46am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Unfortunately, it pairs with yesterday’s offering and basically suggests that while Labouris shallow, Labour and the Greens and the Maori Party together will have enough talent to run things.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:06am
  - riffer
    
    Conspiracy theorists will note that the JIF has ended.
    
    7 3
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    July 25, 2023 10:21am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      So what – its done its job as Clare Curran called for in her shaping the narrative paper.
      
      PJIF was an affront to democracy and free speech.
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:43am
- WaveyDavey
  
  I’m amazed* to see it’s not by the execrable Sharon Murdoch – the NZ Labour toady-in-chief
  
  *is not amazed in the slightest
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:38am
- Raphael
  
  the PIJF officially closed. So perhaps $1uff feels they can criticise Labour a bit.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:08am
Ehlana

I heard some talk this morning about the pressures of being an MP.

It struck me that we expect too much of Parliament. There are only 120 MPs, just under half of whom are in Opposition, leaving the Government to draw on only 60+ people. Even if they have good transferrable skills when they arrive, it takes time to learn any new job and become truly effective at it.

It would be a hard enough job if it was just about law making. But we now seem to expect our government to deliver health, wealth and happiness to each and every one of us, regardless of our own efforts or choices.

Perhaps it’s time for new ideas: taking responsibility, using initiative, helping ourselves and each other instead of waiting for the government to do something.
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July 25, 2023 8:34am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Your last para Ehlana, is just human decency. The first part of your post is gobbledygook. We have to have high expectations of our MP’s. They are supposed to be running the country, and therefore should have a level of skills, and the IQ to be able to make rational, fact based decisions for the good of the country. If they cannot, they do not belong in the job.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:42am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    A strong argument for the List approach.
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:46am
    - Mike
      
      That assumes political parties, as groups, make better decisions than the voters do as a whole.
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:38am
      - Matt Long
        
        And when you see reporting on party lists based on diversity quotas, you know it isn’t happening.
        
        8 2
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        July 25, 2023 11:41am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        The List approach enables candidate selection on competence in policy making and delivery, whereas the constituency-based FPTP approach forces candidate selection on popular electability. These criteria are very different and rarely to never found in a single candidate.
        
        Certainly, political parties don’t always use the opportunity provided by the list system to get genuine, but voter-unfriendly, competence into Parliament. But they’re more likely to use an opportunity that they have, than one that they don’t
        
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        July 25, 2023 12:41pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    And they are extremely well compensated, considering the lack of ability most of them show.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:26am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Lobby fodder
      
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      July 25, 2023 7:30pm
  - Ehlana
    
    High expectations are one thing, unrealistic expectations are another.
    
    I agree they should have a good level of skills, and the IQ to do the job. But I still think every job has a learning curve, which means a proportions MPs in each Parliament will be learning, either as beginners altogether or working toward Ministerial level.
    
    My main point is actually that maybe we need to stop expecting our MPs to solve all our problems for us. It’s too easy, for us or the media, to go rushing to a politician and say “what will you do to make this right”, instead of “what can I or we do for ourselves”.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:23am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Sorry Ehlana, a couple of things. Firstly, Ministers have generally competent public service backing them up. This lot, including Allan, have ignored their advice on multiple occasions. Which has ended up costing the country, because you know, Allan and her likes know better. Secondly, having spent a good deal of my career in executive management positions, people in those positions generally don’t get anything like the support that a Minister has available. You either swim, or you sink. The expectations of you are always high, and often unrealistic. MP’s should always have their feet held to the fire. They are running the COUNTRY, not a tin pot business in a tin pot town.
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:57am
    - Trev
      
      I don’t expect politicians to solve our problems! The trouble we’ve had in recent years is that the politicians have been so inept that they have created new problems and exacerbated existing ones plus actively discouraged citizens from solving their own problems. Nanny State does not work at the best of times and is awful when we have the calibre of MP’s such as those currently representing Labour in government. (note I didn’t say their constituents!)
      
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      July 25, 2023 4:22pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Last sentence. There are rules you know. Nobody can even burp or fart without permission from the socialist government.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:49am
- Inandout
  
  Eh, perhaps if MPs were paid ‘a living wage’ instead of inflated salaries then the wannabe politicians may choose other occupations. Many List MPs have never seen such large salaries in their lifetimes and will do their best to keep the bank balance healthy. To paraphrase JFK, ‘My fellow New Zealanders, ask not what politicians can do for you, ask what you can do to keep them from featherbedding’.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:50am
  - riffer
    
    My concern with that is you only end up with politicians who don’t need the money, and often those folk have some weird ideologies.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:23am
    - Mike
      
      Colin Craig, Kim Dotcom, Brian Tamaki, Alan Gibbs, etc.
      
      3 6
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      July 25, 2023 10:40am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Except none of the aforementioned became politicians. Doh.
        
        8 2
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        July 25, 2023 11:59am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Well riffer, is that worse than a Government where they all desperately need the money, and all follow a weird ideology in socialism?
      
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      July 25, 2023 12:00pm
- Media hater
  
  How many people actually the government to deliver health, wealth and happiness to each and every one of us?
  Most people expect a reasonable level of competence and integrity. I would say most previous governments have been able to achieve that fairly untaxing threshold, whatever their political persuasion.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:52am
- All_on_Red
  
  I think its time we saw the end of the ‘professional’ Politician who make the job their career.
  The last five years have shown we just don’t get the best people.
  Here’s a case in point. This is the Bio of Labours Candidate for the Nth Shore
  ‘A Columbia and Harvard-educated Fulbright Scholar, George Hampton is a former diplomat. He worked as Deputy Ambassador in Austria and was in former Prime Minister Helen Clark’s team that worked in her bid to become the UN Secretary-General.
  
  Before returning to New Zealand, he was working for the United Nations on global renewable energy projects and policy (from 2018).
  
  Mr Hampton has owned a number of small businesses, has served on boards of directors and studied at Harvard Business School. In 2015 he led a team to win a Columbia University entrepreneurship award and was named a New Zealand Future Leader by the University of Auckland Business School in 2006. He is co-owner of Mr Whippy New Zealand.’
  
  Clearly a clever man (apart from the Climate alarmism) but he’s basically been a student.
  I’m surprised to learn Mr Whippy still exists and good on him for keeping it going but that aside, Labour think this guy could run a Country?
  More like he will be a faithful disciple to the Cult.
  We dont need people like him.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:05am
  - Mike
    
    Working as a diplomat is basically the same as being a student?
    
    4 11
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    July 25, 2023 9:11am
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Pretty much, given the salary starts at $69k and tops out at $150k and Mr Hampton spent 2 years in post it’s unlikely he progressed beyond the lowest tier
      
      Beware the CV embellishment of career policy wonks
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:52am
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Here’s lie No1 on his LinkedIn profile
      
      “former Adviser to the New Zealand Prime Minister”
      
      Nope, he advised Helen Clark AFTER she left office
      
      “Advisor to former New Zealand Prime Minister and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark during her campaign for Secretary-General of the United Nations”
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:57am
      - WaveyDavey
        
        Or perhaps you mean this?
        
        Political Advisor (Economic)Political Advisor (Economic), Office of the New Zealand Prime Minister, Aug 2008 – Nov 2008 · 4 mos
        
        Which was basically a 4 month internship spent sitting at a desk in an office where he would have had precisely zero face-time with the PM of the day – basically the guy you send to get the coffees in
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:05am
    - WaveyDavey
      
      What’s that? Deputy Ambassador you say?
      
      Again, nope
      
      “Deputy Chief of Mission and Deputy Permanent Representative”
      
      So basically, covered by diplomatic privilege but really just a paper-shuffler
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:59am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Love your work
        LOL
        
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        July 25, 2023 3:57pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Owning a Mr Whippy probably gives him more business experience than the current Labour front bench.
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:23am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Its shocking isn’t it.
      Even worse that we let these incompetents get their hands on the levers of power.
      
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      July 25, 2023 9:32am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Honestly sounds better experienced to manage a Ministry (having had management and business experience) than any current Labour MP
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:27am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Mr Whippy, you say.
    
    Are you sure his Mr Whippy is in the same line of business as the Mr Whippy you remember?
    
    This being an aspirant Labour MP, after all
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:34pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Watch out for Geoffrey Palmer.
  
  He wants another 30 MPs at least.
  
  However, he does think a smaller Cabinet would be more efficient.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018897936/geoffrey-palmer-strengthen-parliament-to-watch-government
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:07am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I actually agree given shit-show of Labour over last 6 years we need a larger pool of MP’s to be able to draw Ministerial talent from – there is basically a 3 year training period of back benching to learn govt ropes
    
    5 9
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    July 25, 2023 9:30am
    - Mike
      
      I wondered if we have lost something in the over-rapid advancement of political careers.
      Time from first elected an MP to becoming PM:
      Holyoake – 25 years
      Nash – 28 years
      Marshall – 26 years
      Kirk – 15 years
      Rowling – 12 years
      Muldoon – 15 years
      Lange – 7 years
      Palmer – 10 years
      Moore – 18 years
      Bolger – 18 years
      Shipley – 10 years
      Clark – 18 years
      Key – 6 years
      English – 26 years
      Ardern – 3 years
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:55am
      - marcw
        
        Ardern contested as a Labour candidate in the Waikato electorate in 2008, and entered Parliament as a list MP in that year after losing to Lindsay Tisch (N), but was ranked high enough on Labour’s list to get in. So, 9 years, not 3.
        
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        July 25, 2023 11:58am
      - Prince
        
        Ardern was an MP for 9 years prior to being PM.
        It’s just that no-one noticed.
        
        16 0
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        July 25, 2023 12:23pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Crickey, a sensible comment from Mike. Did you get a good night’s sleep, Mikey?
        
        3 0
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        July 25, 2023 7:36pm
    - kiwi_chileno
      
      “… a larger pool of MP’s to be able to draw Ministerial talent from….” – you’re assuming that there will be an increased supply of Ministerial talent to draw from a larger Parliament – Palmer is suggesting 150 MP’s (for comparison, Chile, with a population of 19 m., has 155 lower house represenatives and 50 Senators.) But I think there will be more low-rent, DEI, grifter candidates elected as MP’s.
      
      Thomas Cranmer is proposing to restore an upper house as a check to an over-mighty, unaccountable Executive and bad, rushed legislation https://commonroomnz.com/thomas-cranmer-enhancing-democracy-the-case-for-a-second-chamber-in-new-zealands-parliament/ Cranmer also thinks that “…the second chamber could have provisions for the inclusion of representatives from indigenous communities”, as well as the regions.
      
      NZ needs radical constitutional change – not more MP’s; perhaps an upper house; certainly a written constitution (with entrenched rights). Will it happen? Improbable, unless there is an exogenous shock to the current system, causing a crisis of legitimacy.
      
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      July 25, 2023 5:04pm
  - Keith White
    
    There’s only 5 million people. Why would we need 150 mouth-breathing troglodyte feather-bedding self-promoting troughers? NZ’s MP ‘cap’ should be at 50. Singapore – about our population and hugely more able to afford it – “scrapes by” with, I think, 100 MPs.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:43pm
- Flossie
  
  A lot of people tried to use their initiative and look after themselves – like refusing covid “vaccines”. Didn’t go down well with the powers-that-be.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:26am
  - kowtow
    
    There wasn’t much in the way of diversity , equity and inclusion when it came to two classes of citizens and “yip yip , that’s what it is”.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:46am
    - Keith White
      
      And there was certainly zero concern expressed in Govt and media – but I repeat myself – about “forgive them because their mental health is not the best.”
      
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      July 25, 2023 3:44pm
  - miltonF
    
    Great point Flossie. It’s not that we don’t want to look after ourselves. It’s that we aren’t allowed to. The same argument applies for taxation. When you’re paying half of your income to the govt in tax, that restricts your personal options. I feel it is quite rude to suggest people should just hunker down and save and they will afford a home. Yah really? When the govt is inflating the currency and house prices faster than is physically possible to save?
    
    It’s called socialism. The individual is disempowered for the “greater good” – whatever that means to whoever holds the keys of power.
    
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    July 25, 2023 12:52pm
    - mawm
      
      Surely you mean devaluing the currency? Have you not noticed how little it can buy whether at the supermarkets and other types of retail?
      
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      July 25, 2023 2:50pm
      - miltonF
        
        Inflating/devaluing currency. Same same. Fiat currency only has value to due scarcity. Increase the volume of $ in circulation and its value falls.
        
        3 1
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        July 25, 2023 4:06pm
      - mawm
        
        milton – I would have called that printing money or increasing the amount in circulation but I now get what you are saying.
        
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        July 25, 2023 5:15pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Put List MPs into electorates to help the electorate MPs would be a start.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:31am
  - Mike
    
    This already happens. Most list MPs have an office in the electorate where they stood last time, or where they hope to stand next time.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:57am
  - leoj
    
    No, scrap MMP.
    
    Make MPs accountable to voters instead of their party.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:01pm
- Local Miller
  
  Down ticked because everything but the last paragraph are essentially bollocks. MPs should be managers, they have deputies and significant staff. If you don’t have the skill set to be a manager you shouldn’t be standing for parliament, end of story.
  And your “new ideas” are actually old ideas. Conservatives and right of centre generally take these as given. Maybe the left should be looking at their core beliefs because its clear that bigger government, more welfare and throwing money around don’t work.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:13am
- Ra Henare
  
  I suggest Ehlana, you confuse governance(setting and monitoring policy) with all the micro management being attempted by popularity contest winners.
  
  Given the size of the country 120 Politicians is enough.
  singapore similiar population has 103 and is doing gret but Caveat is that they have smart people as politicians. Not dumbarses.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:21pm
Gravelroad

We have all sorts of people with all sorts of agendas coming to this country.
Who the f..k is Martyn Bradbury to decide who should be banned?
What has he got to fear from this woman who was prevented from speaking last time?
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July 25, 2023 8:36am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Bradbury is all for the banning as it gives him material to write.
  No Kellie Jay Keen and he goes back to writing about flower shows.
  
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  July 25, 2023 8:53am
- stewmar
  
  Who is Martyn Bradbury?
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:28am
  - Keith White
    
    Martyn B is A Legend in his own mind.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:45pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  Who the f..k is he – He is somebody who has the right to hold and express an opinion, no matter how incoherent, ignorant and hypocritical it is.
  
  All of us on here all of the time express opinions about stuff that is not our business and that we don’t have any authority over or even knowledge about.
  
  We make ourselves no better than the trans activists, or the woke snowflakes, or the iwi supremacists, when we challenge others’ right to hold an opinion rather than engaging with the actual opinion.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:55am
  - riffer
    
    Exactly. Fuck cancel culture. On any side.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:26am
- Benedict Yu
  
  His argument seems to be he agrees with free speech where the speaker will cause a riot.
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:30pm
Simon

Kiri Allan eh? The drink driving, car crashing mentally ill Minister of Justice.

Called back to office too early apparently.

But what is worse after all her troubles they then gave her a fucking EV to drive. Pushed her over the edge.
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July 25, 2023 8:37am
- riffer
  
  I dunno. I’ve driven almost all the current EVs. Didn’t make me go troppo.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:27am
  - RightNow
    
    You’re entitled to your opinion about that 😅
    Maybe not for much longer if we get another left wing government though.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:42am
Simon

NZ’s war with Russia. Not much in MSM.

Is there anyway for NATO to get Labo MPs into the Russian govt? Get Labo MPs to run critical Russian war infrastructure & systems.
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July 25, 2023 8:45am
- riffer
  
  Nah. The Russians are so incompetent Labour MPs would probably do a better job.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:27am
  - Matt Long
    
    There’s incompetent, then there’s NZ Labour incompetent. Send them to Russia and suddenly the Russians will see their leaders as both competent and incorruptible.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:49am
slightlyrighty

Yesterday’s events should be sparking a debate, but in these times, that debate is a difficult one to have.

I’m talking about the subject of Diversity.

I have no problem with Diversity, but it should mean that the best person be placed in a role, regardless of background.

What we have been seeing is people being placed in roles because of their background, regardless of merit and ability.

When I look at Ministers in the Cabinet that seem to fill a demographic, such as Poto Williams, Nanaia Mahuta, Carmel Sepuloni, Willie Jackson, these all seem to be people who have seen the performance of their ministries suffer under their oversight.

But the biggest Diversity appointment of the lot, Jacinda Ardern, has to be the poster child for appearence over performance.
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July 25, 2023 8:48am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Diversity should be the result of giving the best person the job (competence has no race, gender or creed), not the starting point.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:12am
All_on_Red

Funny to see Just Stop Oil hoist with their own petard.
A banquet held by Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters has been disrupted by practical jokers with alarms and helium balloons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0bN4Tmel0&list=LL&index=1
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July 25, 2023 8:54am
- Ruawai
  
  Juilian Batchelor needs to send protesters to any pro co-governance huis, then the left would scream that he is being culturally insensitive.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:09am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    He’s already handed them one piece of political gold. Why would you advocate that he go out of his way to hand them another?
    
    4 5
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    July 25, 2023 9:57am
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘Political Gold’- BS-probably because it wont make any difference to what the Media say regardless of what you do.
      So how would you deal with these protestors who wont move, blow whistles, yell things out and then cry assault if you touch them?
      I say fuck em. The left use violence all the time.
      Pick them up and throw them out.
      They will never stop otherwise.
      
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      July 25, 2023 3:51pm
  - riffer
    
    Well, they could, but then they would be wrong, eh? Protest works both ways.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:31am
- miltonF
  
  That is not on. We need to let people speak. How is this any different than the whistle blowing activist at the stop co governance meeting?
  
  Don’t stoop to their level. Let them speak and make fools of themselves, then debate their crazy ideals succinctly (if debate is allowed!).
  
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  July 25, 2023 2:15pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    yeah nah.
    They made the rules. Lets play by them too.
    If they want to ruin Wimbledon, Chelsea Flower Show and lots of other events then tough luck that they get ridiculed during their nice little lunch.
    Appropriate it was at a Church given their religious nuttery about ‘Climate’.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:57pm
Westie Bob

Has anybody heard that the shooter targeted Tongans and that one person wasn’t shot as he identified himself as Samoan (as was he shooter)? My son knows someone who knows someone.
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July 25, 2023 8:59am
- kowtow
  
  Swarbick , local MP and all, usually has an awful lot to say on shooting affairs , strangely silent on this one.
  How very queer.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:50am
  - Keith White
    
    ISWYDT…
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:46pm
Tricati

With all the distractions associated with disappearing Labour Ministers, and daily shambolic presentations given by the PM, the issues over co governance and 3 waters are being conveniently sidelined – Much to the governments glee I suspect. Below article is a good read on the current state, in particular the Mana o te Wai Statements, and the governments supposedly balanced amendment.
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/hipkins-betrays-three-waters-promise
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July 25, 2023 9:00am
Kiwiguy

Dear mods – does it really take an hour for comments to go through moderation??

[Comments are approved when a moderator is free to come on and do so]
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July 25, 2023 9:02am
- Raphael
  
  the mods are volunteers, so it’s when there is one online and available.
  
  You can contact DPF and give him you actual details and you will be approved to not have to go into the mod queue.
  (I am not a mod, or anything on here but a fellow commentator.)
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:44am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  The cost of pandering to the Media Council is a worse reading experience for everyone.
  
  4 2
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  July 25, 2023 10:30am
  - Mike
    
    Kiwiblog is much better in most ways for the moderation. Sure, it slows down the interactions a bit, and some spasmodically entertaining commenters left, but most of the nastiest comments are now gone.
    
    7 2
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    July 25, 2023 11:02am
  - Ghost
    
    I recently read of an American who was arrested and charged not for what he wrote on his website but for the unmoderated threats people had written on his articles
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:08am
    - Mike
      
      DPF was, IIRC, concerned about his liability as a publisher, and not just feeling a growing revulsion at the content some commenters wanted to post.
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:26am
- Kiwiguy
  
  Got it, thanks Mods.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:37am
  - Biscuit
    
    Good on ya, Kiwiguy.
    
    DPF is a good employer. Why, I hear that he even allows his mods one loo break per three hours, a cup of instant coffee every four hours and – you won’t believe this – a life outide of Kiwiblog.
    
    The man’s a saint. A saint, I tells thee!
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:08am
    - Mike
      
      I heard that the moderators eat half a handful of freezing cold gravel, work twenty-four hours a day at the blog for fourpence every six years, and when they get home, DPF slices in to ’em with a bread knife.
      
      [Bread knife – luxury. No, it is usually the butter knife. mod.]
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:29am
      - Don Beckett
        
        That’s nuthin’.
        When I was at secondary school, I worked as fleecoe in a shearing shed for a couple of shearers.
        Start at 6 am., breakfast at 8 – 2 handfulls of second hand grain and a shepherd shandy; lunchtime the same only twice as much;
        Konck off at 5 pm. The shearers drank beer whilr I had a couple more shepherd shandies.
        What’s a shepherd shandy you ask ? a dag dropped into a glass of water. They were best double strength.
        Yepo ! thgings were tough whe I was a kid, but so were we. 😆
        
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        July 25, 2023 2:29pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Hubby received his Bypass surgery yesterday… on the 6th (7th) time he had been prepared for surgery.

The reasons for his 6/7 postponements varied:

Surgeons exhausted after working through the night/ emergency patient taking priority/no space available in ICU/ a scheduled morning operation taking longer than planned.

Everything points to an overwhelmed surgical delivery service…. Not enough staff, not enough ICU beds.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018899818/doctors-say-conditions-haven-t-improved

We are grateful for the care he has received to date,
but the cost of keeping him in a hospital setting for 5 weeks prior to his surgery must have blown a wee hole into some budget….. (and goodness only knows how much extra would have been paid out of Public coffers if I had opted to accompany him to Waikato Hospital as support “whanau”and stayed at a Motel).
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July 25, 2023 9:02am
- krazykiwi
  
  I hope his recovery is fast and full, Maggy.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:14am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Amen to that krazykiwi. Here’s hoping Hubby has a complete and uncomplicated recovery Maggy.
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:25am
- Ghost
  
  I have relative who had a hip replacement last year, his original surgeon had to pass him over to a locom as he was so over worked trying to clean the backlog he was put on a month stress leave.
  
  Best of luck for his recovery, although should he be warned there are words to have when he gets home about his phone use at the hospital?
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:30am
- Jack5
  
  Good news, Maggy W, and may Dr Mr Wassilieff make a swift recovery.
  
  Surgeons, nurses, are also under heavy pressure in Christchurch. It’s almost like wartime.
  
  How did the country’s health system get in such a mess?
  
  How did our over-all education and training systems get so misaligned with public need?
  
  As Richard Prebble pointed out recently on the Platform internet TV site, historically in NZ high inflation means one-term governments.
  
  Shane Reti needs priority support from the incoming government so reform can begin the first week.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:33am
  - riffer
    
    I would speculate that there is a connection between the inability of many folks to see a GP at their earliest convenience and the stressed-out health system. Delaying initial treatment is likely to have exacerbated problems.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:36am
    - peterwn
      
      That is an important objective of a health system – trying to run everything in harmony. The system is so complex that it needs to be broken into manageable pieces eg GP network, hospitals, Pharmac. But there is a serious risk that they can operate too much as separate silos in that they make decisions with limited regard to the objectives and needs for other groups. For example a new expensive drug could result in significant savings elsewhere in the system. But Pharmac may not have sufficient budget for it and the group that would benefit from the drug would not want to relinquish part of its budget to ‘give’ to Pharmac. So the drug is not purchased. A Health Minister and his top health officials need to try and find a way around that dilemma.
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:19am
- Inandout
  
  Maggy, best of wishes for his recovery. As an aside I wonder what a healthy diet would achieve in bring down hospital patient numbers. In supermarkets I see seriously overweight humans with trolleys brimming with processed food items and question the number of medications they may have been prescribed.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:50am
  - Jack5
    
    Inandout, your … trolleys brimming with processed food items …
    
    Do you include bread in those items? Perhaps with the new compulsory addition of florate (vitamin B9), you might be right.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:03am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Hubby will be on a Wife-approved diet for the rest of our life together!!
    
    He is a little man.. 5′ 7″; in the realm of 70-73kg for all his adult life… His BMI is usually in the upper healthy weight zone.
    Non-smoker and his alcohol consumption would amount to just a couple of glasses of wine/beer each year.
    
    But he’s had high blood pressure since his 40s…..and a paternal family history of cardiovascular disease.
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:49am
- JimBobJoe
  
  A bypass is a huge operation – I hope the recovery goes well Maggy…
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:48am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    My Dad had a similar operation. It made him teary for a couple of months, and he is by no means a teary man. The anaesthetic alone really knocked him about.
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:43pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      I know someone who had a double bypass…. the clearing the lungs post operation was a nasty experience according to my friend…
      
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      July 25, 2023 7:52pm
- mawm
  
  Maggy – I hope he has a speedy recovery.
  
  Surgeons exhausted after working through the night/ emergency patient taking priority/no space available in ICU/ a scheduled morning operation taking longer than planned.
  
  Just to be contrarian – cardiac surgeons working through the night are usually doing so for an emergency/transplant donor becoming available, an emergency patient taking priority is hopefully something we all can accept, the shortage of ICU beds is perennial and I suspect that extra beds would simply be filled with existing patients, and scheduled surgery taking longer than anticipated would seem to be out of anyone’s control. The solution would be to have more cardiac surgeons and more staffed facilities but the cost of training these extra surgeons and having them, extra operating rooms and ICU beds standing idle must be enormous. However there must be a balance of the above which offers a better outcome.
  
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  July 25, 2023 3:17pm
  - Keith White
    
    The past is not always helpfully viewed in isolation but in the past in my public hospital career, we did much better at helping the people who were our raison d’être.
    
    I did note over decades the acceleration of the Inverse Care Law of Health Care Management – the more managers and tiers of managers managing the service, the fewer procedures and beds and clinic openings available for patients.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:50pm
Jack5

Follow the money …

The internet newsletter Public News (link below) questions accuracy of carbon-imprint of solar power generation – figures used by the International Energy Association.

Solar-power industry equipment manufacturers are overwhelmingly in China. China’s global share of production of equipment for the solar-power industry surged from 14 per cent in 2006 to 60 per cent by 2013.

In 2021, China produced more than 80 per cent of global solar-grade polysilicon, a critical input into solar arrays. China also makes 97 per cent of the global supply of solar wafers, another essential component.

Public News says information unearthed by Environmental Progress, a non-profit research organisation, points to oversight in compiling figures influencing international net zero policies and investments in solar power. The problem is difficulty collecting accurate information from China, especially about purification processes used to create silicon wafers.

The site says an Italian researcher, Enrico Mariutti, suggests solar power’s carbon footprint is between 170 and 250 grams of CO2 per kWH, depending on the energy mix used in production.

“If this estimate is accurate, solar would not compare favourably with natural gas, which is around 50 gCO2/kWh with carbon capture and 400 to 500 without.”

https://public.substack.com/p/solar-panels-more-carbon-intensive?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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July 25, 2023 9:12am
- [email protected]
  
  Educate me please. I’m not following you.
  
  If natural gas CO2 footprint is 50gCO2/kWh when using one Kwh unit of natural gas and solar uses 170 to 250 grams of CO2/KwH during its manufacture wouldn’t solar be a huge winner since it can continue to create kWh of electricity for 10-20 years without creating any more CO2?
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:31am
  - Local Miller
    
    The CO2 footprint for solar panels is worked out as the CO2 used to manufacture divided by the average total output over the life of the panel(s). Essentially producing a solar panel releases so much CO2 that even after 10 years (the actual effective life of a panel) it’s still less environmentally friendly than gas.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:25am
    - kowtow
      
      Aren’t a lot of the early solar panels installed here in “clean green NZ” shit ?
      
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      July 25, 2023 11:50am
    - miltonF
      
      Impossible I’m sorry. The numbers don’t stack up. If solar panels used THAT much energy to produce, then they would cost MUCH more than they do in reality. They would not make any financial sense.
      
      Solar panels cost $1000/kwh. Let’s say lifetime of 20yrs (in reality much longer) 4.5 full sun hours per day (Nz avg) . That is an investment of $1000 for a return of 32,850Kwh or $6,900 at current avg electricity prices (hint, it will be more in the future as electricity prices rise with inflation).
      
      If you believe you can produce $7000 worth of electricity from $1000 of natural gas (including the infrastructure) then please show me the numbers.
      
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      July 25, 2023 2:46pm
  - Jack5
    
    Mariutti’s argument is that the IEA and China are cooking the books (my words) in figures on solar power generation and carbon.
    
    I found this interesting from Mariutti’s assertion:
    
    “The IEA has admitted to Environmental Progress that its carbon footprint calculations do not account for three important factors in PV production: silicon mining; toxic panel waste, which promises to overwhelm recycling infrastructure; and something known as the albedo effect. This is when the highly reflective properties of dark-colored solar panels lead to an increase in the greenhouse effect.
    
    “According to the IEA, when taken into proper account, the first two factors alone could more than triple the ‘payback period’ for panels, i.e., the length of time before they become carbon neutral after installation.”
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:33am
- miltonF
  
  Hahaha. “Carbon capture” is a joke. So let’s stick with the 400-500g CO2/KWh eh.
  
  Carbon capture requires large amounts of energy , which AFAIK have not been included in your calculations. Where did the energy come from for the carbon capture? From burning more gas??
  
  Also, why is no “carbon capture” applied to the solar manufacturing figures? Surely the carbon from the production of solar panels could be “captured” by using the same technology? Would that not bring the carbon/kWh level for Solar down to MINUS 150-200g/kWh or to be kind, zero?
  
  In other words, none of it makes any sense. Sounds like oil/gas company propaganda.
  
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  July 25, 2023 2:28pm
  - Jack5
    
    MiltonF’s your calculations”.
    
    My original post clearly spells out the source and origins of the challenge to figures of the IEA.
    
    My minor role is repeating what I found interesting amid the sea of panic about “climate change”, and I don’t mean the perpetual change in weather by the year, by the day, by the hour.
    
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    July 25, 2023 4:57pm
Nickc2

Are Shanan Halbert and Tamati Coffee an item?
I see they have teamed up to support Kiri Allan.
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July 25, 2023 9:13am
- Tony Stuart
  
  No, but they are both fervent members of Labour’s Rainbow Caucus, so they’ll naturally stand by their fellow RC member.
  
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  July 25, 2023 9:32am
  - Chris2
    
    Just occurred to me, are there any openly gay National MP’s?
    
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    July 25, 2023 9:42am
    - mandk
      
      Why do you ask?
      
      It’s not important.
      
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      July 25, 2023 10:04am
      - kevn
        
        70% of labour are apparently. Bit lopsided in the diversity stakes.
        
        11 3
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        July 25, 2023 10:30am
    - graham
      
      I don’t know of any current gay National MPs, but previously Chris Finlayson, Paul Foster-Bell, and Claudette Hauiti I believe.
      
      Having said that … why does it matter? Does the question of whether they are attracted to the opposite sex, or the same sex, have the slightest bearing on whether they are any good at their job? I don’t think it does.
      
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      July 25, 2023 1:11pm
      - Keith White
        
        It does not have any bearing on whether they are good at their job. It can have a bearing on whether they err in their judgments when fellow gays are involved. Exactly as with other subgroups in society.
        
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        July 25, 2023 4:24pm
Bridgenag

It’s Evil to Fake Deaths to Panic People…
Textbook evil.
“Our public health system is broken worldwide and it is only getting worse.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/its-evil-to-fake-deaths-to-panic?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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July 25, 2023 9:25am
- ClanMcleod
  
  We were lied to about every aspect of the covid circus.
  Released emails now showing that the lab leak theory was acknowledged as early as February 2020 and was deliberately covered up for political reasons.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEduQma50rc
  
  People were smeared and ridiculed in mainstream media, I was kicked off Twitter.
  
  Fauci lied to Congress, he needs to go to jail. So do a few of the ‘experts’ in NZ who all lied to the NZ public about almost every aspect of the covid nightmare.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:44am
  - Ghost
    
    Here’s an article for you
    
    ‘Serious Doubt’ About COVID-19 Vaccine Safety After Forced Release Of 15,000 Pages Of Clinical Trial Data
    
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    July 25, 2023 10:53am
  - KKKKatee
    
    The unvaxxed were treated like lepers. We have a business. We didn’t mandate our staff. Not our role nor our right. We didn’t jump on the vaccine passes bandwagon. And we didn’t give a shit whether either way about mask wearing. Certainly didn’t kick anyone out who wasn’t wearing a mask. Didn’t ask to sight their exemption. Told reps to feel free to remove the stupid bloody mask. The whole v pass thing was smoke & mirrors.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:28pm
  - Keith White
    
    “Never forgive. Never forget.” Peace Crimes Tribunals.
    
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    July 25, 2023 4:24pm
Prince

During all the Kiri-fervour, a most interesting development was David Parker asking Hipkins to ‘pass on’ his position as Revenue Minister.
Recall that Parker unveiled a ‘Tax study’ that strongly favoured the imposition of a CGT or Wealth tax.
This was summarily dismissed by Hipkins, despite vocal support from the Finance Minister, Grant Robertson.
Now Parker has relinquished his role as Revenue Minister, although retaining other portfolios.
Hard to see this isn’t a one-fingered salute to Hipkins after his lack of support for the new taxes.
So now we have Robertson and Parker, two experienced, senior ministers openly disputing Hipkins’ decision, while no doubt still claiming they are ‘team-players’.

Tova OBrien has written a piece mulling over Hipkins’ future should he lose the election. Given the Labour Party’s rules around strong Union involvement in selecting the leader outside a pre-election window (hence Ardern’s selection by the caucus in 2017 not needing Union backing), it is not fanciful to imagine Hipkins being replaced by a leader more amenable to tax reform by the end of the year.
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July 25, 2023 9:52am
- Blog-aholic
  
  IMO it isn’t a one finger salute it is a fisting…..
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:18am
- Grunter
  
  I think the Parker dummie-spit is a bigger story than Allen resisting arrest. Post election loss, Hipkins is toast as Labour Leader. The zealots and unionists will elect an unelectable as their new ‘leader’. The in-fighting between factions will be awesome to watch! Maoris vs Unioins vs LGBTQXYZ+ vs others…..
  
  Labour as a realistic opposition may well be gone burger. Maybe wishful thinking, but how do they ever come back from this cluster?
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:59am
  - Ruahine
    
    It is certainly going to be a tricky time if you are a Homosexual Maori Unionist in the Labour Party.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:47am
  - kowtow
    
    It’s such a larf , only a few short months ago Robberson was literally gloating from the podium of the sole source of truth at their conference of how united they were and there were no factions ……..
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:54am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Perhaps being Revenue Minister was just too taxing for Parker!
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:05am
- PeeJay
  
  I’ve mentioned this before, but I suspect Parker has leadership aspirations and is jockeying for position.
  
  Not sure if he plans to move against Hipkins before the election, shortly after as someone more aligned to the Greens & Maori wealth / envy taxes (maybe even dropped in as PM as part of a deal?), or just to cruise as Leader of the Opposition for a few years.
  
  Regardless, any other PM would have sent him to the backbenches over this strop. Show’s how discipline is all but gone in Cabinet.
  
  If this carries on as expected, the next few months could be very entertaining as Labour implodes.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:46am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    David Parker threw his hat in the ring back when David Shearer, David Cunliffe and him were all going for the leadership. I can’t imagine him as leader.
    
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    July 25, 2023 1:24pm
  - Individual Responsibility
    
    PeeJay – Parker has no ambition to be leader.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:58pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Tui ad?
  “Alongside announcing who would be taking over Kiri Allan’s portfolios, Hipkins also revealed Parker had requested to conclude his time as Revenue Minister. Hipkins claimed Parker’s reason was to focus on his newly-acquired transport portfolio, which he was given after Michael Wood was demoted.
  
  However, asked this morning whether the real reason was that the tax work was not progressed, Parker said: “Look, you know, my views on those things, I thought it was untenable for me to continue so I suggested to Chris [Hipkins] that it was in the best interests of him and the party that someone else take that role.”
  
  Parker maintained he was still a loyal Labour member and didn’t want to cause any distractions.
  
  “I‘ve tried to do this in a way that makes it as smooth as possible for Chris Hipkins.” ‘
  
  I guess saying publicly your boss is telling porky’s must make it “smoother” for him!
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/david-parker-holding-revenue-portfolio-was-untenable-after-wealth-and-capital-gains-taxes-scrapped/
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:06pm
Jack5

The Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority is becoming as notorious for its decisions as our criminal-court judges are for their light sentencing.

The authority’s judgment is appalling on the Christchurch liquor king who is filling empty surburban shopping strips with his booze outlets.

Just as our criminal court judges seem out of touch with public fear and concern about crime, the booze authority is out of touch with citizens around the country on proliferation of suburban liquor shops.

The authority rejected consideration of the booze king’s record in employment. How fair is this to the supermarkets and other liquor sellers that run clean, Western-labour standard businesses?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/132605485/move-to-force-christchurch-liquor-baron-out-of-industry-fails
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July 25, 2023 9:54am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  He has not been convicted of any offences involving treatment of employees and the Authority decided it was not up to them to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Especially in relation to matters that aren’t directly related to whether alcohol is being supplied responsibly.
  
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  July 25, 2023 10:36am
  - Mike
    
    Yes, just because he is a scumbag employer doesn’t mean he should be stopped from supplying liquor.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:08am
  - Jack5
    
    … in relation to matters that aren’t directly related to whether alcohol is being supplied responsibly …
    
    But it was right for the US to lock up Al Capone on Alcatraz on tax infringements?
    
    Christchurch locals have been fighting new uburban grog shops by this guy and similar, and have generally lost.
    
    However, Kiri Alan, of sad fate, had been making noises about tightening the law to give citizens more balance against an able lawyer from the liquor industry. Maybe she’ll be back after the 2026 election, if Richard Prebble is right about one-term governments during high inflation.
    
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    July 25, 2023 11:59am
- Swifty
  
  I’m against the death penalty, I don’t believe we should hand any government the right to decide over life and death in that way.
  
  However I am partial to a good old public flogging. You know, public square stuff complete with vendors and seating etc.
  
  Widely advertised so that we can manage our diaries accordingly.
  
  I would vote for a party who promised to bring it back.
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:25pm
Yvette

Perhaps this Newshub article –

Human Rights Commission gives New Zealand mixed report card on indigenous rights at United Nations
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/07/human-rights-commission-gives-new-zealand-mixed-report-card-on-indigenous-rights-at-united-nations.html

– outlines the scope of the divisive and racist policies – 3 waters, co- governance and other aspects of UNDRIP – which Labour has put on hold and out of sight for the Election
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July 25, 2023 10:02am
Warren

The arrogance of our Prime Minister Chris Hipkins just shows how out of touch he is with the majority of New Zealander’s.
On Newshub this morning he stated to the host Ryan Bridge suggesting Government is ‘most chaotic Cabinet our Country has ever seen’ ‘absolutely ridiculous ‘- Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/07/suggesting-government-is-most-chaotic-cabinet-country-s-ever-seen-is-absolutely-ridiculous-prime-minister-chris-hipkins.html
I know you need to be positive when you are in a Election continually saying you will win the Election is saying the public are stupid especially with the ‘Mistakes ‘ you have allowed your Cabinet Minister’s to get away with and how long it took you to sack them.
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July 25, 2023 10:14am
- Biscuit
  
  Agreed, Warren.
  
  And I see they must have had a draw amongst the (ex) Cabinet Ministers.
  
  It seems Stuart Nash drew the short straw … and was tasked with releasing a press statement saying that (insert 7782635682364852 lines of utter inanity about Chippie’s shining star).
  
  Exactly why Nash – not standing for re-election in October but, of course, happy to keep raking in taxpayer dollars ahead of that date – thinks that the average citizen is even remotely interested in his opinion is beyond me. This is – happily WAS – a(nother) man who showed he couldn’t even read a simple Cabinet manual.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:00am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Ryan should have asked which government was more chaotic then.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:48am
Yvette

Allan married Natalie Coates in 2016 after same-sex marriage was legalised in New Zealand. They had a baby just before the 2017 election and Allan brought the baby to Parliament. They divorced in May 2022. Allan had a previous relationship with another Labour Party MP, Meka Whaitiri.

In April 2021, Allan announced she would be taking medical leave from parliament after being diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer.[Maori wahine survival rate said to be 13.8 percent] In December 2021 she announced that after treatment she was cancer-free and encouraged others to have regular testing for different forms of cancer.

In 2022, Allan became engaged to RNZ National presenter Māni Dunlop, but they broke up in 2023. In June 2023, Allan took leave from Parliament following the breakup.

On 3 July, Allan went on leave again. This decision followed concerns raised by public servants about her management style and her relationships with staff in her office.

On 23 July 2023, Allan was involved in a car crash in Wellington, and was criminally charged with careless driving and refusing to accompany a police officer. She also received an infringement offence for excess breath alcohol.The following day, Allan resigned from all ministerial portfolios, and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stated that she would be “taking time to consider her future in politics”. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiri_Allan

Obviously time for some time out – rather than making the decisions a Justice Minister may need to
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July 25, 2023 10:35am
- Ruahine
  
  I think Natalie Coates had the baby. However I do not think it was an Immaculate Conception.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:53am
  - kowtow
    
    Not to mention the total absence of any wise men.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:21pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Natalie’s not going to be happy with the drop off in paternity support consistent with Kiri’s rapidly reducing salary.
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:50pm
- kowtow
  
  Tying in with Redbaiters comment above ;
  
  I find it rather extraordinary how te pahti media have painted Allan as some sort of amazing , came from nowhere brilliant legal/political Joan of Arc who has seemingly crashed to earth through no fault of her own.
  
  I say this because of the hit job that same pahti did on Uffindel . A hit job and character assasination that they saved till the Nat annual conference in a way designed to ambush its success .
  And the Uffindel case is merely one of many slimy ,smear campaigns they conducted on any Nat they could , including dragging wives and children in where they could .
  
  But when it comes to Allan there are huge gaps , omissions and what can only be deliberate exclusions around her personal life and professional development .
  
  Why the different standards in treatment by the media ?
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:17pm
- kevn
  
  Yvette… Pretty loose unit it would seem. They all like to be ‘players’. Until one gets played.
  
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  July 25, 2023 2:03pm
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jailed-auckland-radio-host-nate-nauer-appeals-manifestly-excessive-prison-sentence/5I3GCZQVXFCH5IFM4CVUFLFQVI/

On May 24 in the Auckland District Court, Judge Nevin Dawson sentenced Nauer to two years, nine months prison to be served concurrently after he pleaded guilty to six money laundering charges.
He laundered $420,000 for the Comancheros,

Wow, he argues his sentence is excessive? I’d argue he should have got 10 years…gangs are a scourge on society, dealing misery and death.
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July 25, 2023 10:52am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Maybe he looked around at what others were getting for more serious crimes and wondered if it was indeed excessive…..maybe could not get a Harry Tam special to help him.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:04am
Kiwiguy

Isn’t this pothole so symbolic of the Labour Government!

When the visible stuff on the surface caves in, it reveals that underneath it has been compromised for quite some time.

And the hole keeps getting bigger…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/traffic-updates/300934890/roads-remain-closed-around-rapidly-growing-auckland-sinkhole
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July 25, 2023 11:23am
- Inandout
  
  kiwi, was probably once a water course before roads were built over it. Also many drainage pipes around the CBD are still clay and these tend to leak if moved. Still, cycleways are far more important than sink holes.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:52am
  - I remember when
    
    Many would think a cycleway and a sink hole are the perfect combination.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:45pm
  - mawm
    
    I see that AK Council are building new service conduits and then putting cycleways over the top. It probably costs a lot more to put in the necessary structural support to put a road over it.
    
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    July 25, 2023 3:33pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So that’s where all of the road cones are.
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:34pm
- greybeard
  
  I like the “due for renewal next month” bit.
  Probably due to have been replaced in 1993
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:20pm
BeaB

Kiri Allan should retire from public life, find a job in a law firm big enough to support her through her turbulent emotions and personal relationships and concentrate on helping others which in the end will help her help herself. She is manifestly unsuited to a public position or having too much authority.
It was absurd the fawning by the media over her presentation last week of new laws about ram-raiding. It was no more than a rehash of existing burglary laws and she appeared competent only because Hipkins and Kelvin Davis were so hopeless.
This is a dying government and the hysteria of their tribe shows even they know it.
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July 25, 2023 11:36am
- Swifty
  
  Well said BeaB.
  
  Just getting through a stage-managed press conference largely unscathed counts as a big achievement with this lot these days.
  
  How far we have fallen…..
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:58am
- Yvette
  
  The outline a few comments above surely show Kirri’s decision the return to work actually indicates
  her unfit for the decisions required of her work,
  The timings of her return to office would seem to be more of the convenience and needs of Chris Hipkins, so likely placing greater demands on her.
  And this is a government which allocated $1.9 billion to mental health
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:08pm
  - Ehlana
    
    Allocated being the key word there Yvette.
    
    To improve mental health, I believe you have to spend the money on things like counselling sessions, support resources (apps, medicine, etc), training counsellors and such like.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:51pm
  - Gravyman2
    
    None of it got to the front line.
    
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    July 25, 2023 2:56pm
- I remember when
  
  Bringing the profession into disrepute!!
  
  Looks like the Law Society is going to tie itself up in knots once again.
  
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  July 25, 2023 2:43pm
Swifty

WTF?

Am I reading this right?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/handguns-brandished-at-motorist-while-driving-on-waikato-expressway/OYBTUEBMHRED5O3JYWJVXZUYTM/

It’s like a modern-day equivalent of the old stagecoach holdups.

Unbelievable.
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July 25, 2023 11:56am
- kowtow
  
  Feeling safer yet .
  
  How’s that registration and confiscation going.
  
  I had to larf the other night when one of the regime propaganda outlets heavily disguised as “news” were running “vox pop” re the central Auckland outrage .
  
  The racism allowed was appalling with a nmber of people saying “you expect this in America” , well actually maybe in Democrat run cities .
  
  Back to the point , never mind anti American racism , we have a seriously dangerous home grown problem .
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:54pm
Ruahine

Kiri Allen should just shove off and get her hand out of the taxpayers pocket along with a few other time and money suckers lurking in Parliament with her.
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July 25, 2023 11:57am
General

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Andersen
Gordon Harold “Bill” Andersen (21 January 1924 – 19 January 2005) was a New Zealand communist, social activist and trade union leader.

One of the very few New Zealanders to take communism seriously, he visited the Soviet Union and kept a bust of Lenin on his desk

Bill Andersen supported the Ngāti Whātua occupation of Bastion Point, now the site of Ōrākei marae. He organised union support for the Māori claiming ownership of the land.

He remained an active trade unionist all his life. In May 2003 he was arrested on a picket line for obstruction. He kept working at the National Distribution Union and Northern Drivers Charitable Trust until the week of his death.

He is the great-uncle of Labour MP Ginny Andersen

LMFAO
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July 25, 2023 12:06pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  So you are saying she is family friendly…….
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:55pm
- NothingLeft
  
  A life long communist even after visiting USSR? Jesus that is some A-grade denial of reality. And Ginny demonstrating heritability of intellectual attributes.
  
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  July 25, 2023 11:33pm
Swifty

I wonder what will be the end result when the civic institutions of western democracies rot and collapse under the weight of corruption and lies:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12333013/Immigration-law-firms-LIE-authorities-win-asylum.html

Well, we’re about to find out aren’t we.
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July 25, 2023 12:34pm
BeaB

Hmmm. So the ute was outside the home of a senior advisor in the Ministry of Justice. Hell hath no fury…?
13 2
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July 25, 2023 12:48pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  If that is truely the case then it is an outstandingly enormous misjudgement by Allen. No wonder she felt compelled to depart entirely.
  
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  July 25, 2023 12:57pm
- KKKKatee
  
  Pray tell us more.
  
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  July 25, 2023 3:39pm
- Scooter
  
  Media need to do some digging if there is a connection. I was wondering if her ex lives there or the ex’s new squeeze?
  
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  July 25, 2023 6:45pm
BeaB

What a self-aggrandising statement by Kiri Allan. Blood and sweat in the arena for gods sake. Who does she think she is? Teddy Roosevelt?
Now I really do believe she is deranged.
And there’s more than an echo of the abject, tearful apologies abusers make, before offending all over again.
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July 25, 2023 12:55pm
- Swifty
  
  “All I have to offer you is blood, toil, tears and sweat….” Winston Spencer Churchill.
  
  Kiri Allan? Yeah nah.
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:17pm
- kevn
  
  Bea… Cheap talk on full pay.
  
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  July 25, 2023 1:58pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  I wanted to read the quote, but seems she scrubbed it off her Twitter.
  
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  July 25, 2023 7:37pm
  - Ghost
    
    She posted it on her Instagram
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:52pm
I remember when

‘Bill Gates and the total failure of his malaria eradication programme:’ The Conservative Woman.

Appears they have managed to modify the mosquitoes but not the incidence of malaria.
Suggestion is that the programme may have lead to more effective malaria spreading mutated mosquitoes.

Haven’t we been here before??
7 2
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July 25, 2023 2:27pm
- miltonF
  
  Have no fear, Bill is here to save the day with his new malaria “vaccines”. Gosh. The similarities eh?
  
  This mad man appears to act completely above the law. Why do people think he gets away with all of this? I personally suspect Bill was running the IT and security department on Epstiens island. He’s got the dirt.
  
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  July 25, 2023 3:32pm
- mawm
  
  At what point does Billy Goats get arrested and charged over the deaths of 100’s of 1000’s of impoverished 3rd worlders he tests his vaccines on? He wouldn’t get away with it in the US!
  
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  July 25, 2023 3:39pm
kevn

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/bill-gates-and-the-total-failure-of-his-malaria-eradication-programme/
2 1
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July 25, 2023 3:00pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  Fact checked and found wrong. Follow the links
  
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  July 25, 2023 3:21pm
Ghost

Auckland needs a new theme song. Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise

Armed police have arrested two people in Sylvia Park Shopping Centre after a fight broke out on Tuesday afternoon.

The pair are associates of the Rebels gang, police said.

No injures have been reported.

Police received reports that the men fighting were “carrying knives and other objects”, acting inspector Matt Child said.

Article
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July 25, 2023 3:12pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  The news just isn’t the same without our daily dose of gang violence, stabbings and shootings.
  We were rudely interrupted by a minister going off the rails, but normal service has resumed.
  
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  July 25, 2023 6:09pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

If the Democrats cheat and win, here is the next POTUS.

https://rantsofizzo.com/dominick/it-looks-like-gavin-newsom-wants-to-run-for-president/

He will do to America what has been dome to California.
7 1
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July 25, 2023 3:31pm
Benedict Yu

This is stupid New Zealand journalists #7889.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300934879/watch-live-labour-on-back-foot-as-fallout-from-kiri-allan-saga-continues

So a senior Justice Ministry official lived near the site of the crash. It is called a coincidence 😒 so why report it?
12 3
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July 25, 2023 3:32pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Hmm, there are rumours she did a runner from the accident and the Police had to find her…
  
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  July 25, 2023 3:40pm
Bridgenag

why progress is environmentalism
and why real environmentalists must support progress

“in anything resembling a remotely modern society energy use is wealth and wealth, in turn, is environmentalism in pretty much every meaningful sense.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/why-progress-is-environmentalism?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
6 0
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July 25, 2023 3:57pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Solar and Wind are bad for the environment
  https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/07/24/holy-smoke-and-mirrors-solar-panels-three-times-more-carbon-intensive-than-natgas-n566851
  
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  July 25, 2023 5:01pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Twitter, Musk, and Warren.

https://thepatriotchronicles.com/news-for-you/shameless-elizabeth-warren-back-at-it-again-demands-investigation-against-musk-details/

Um, back in your teepee Pocahontas.
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July 25, 2023 4:04pm
Biscuit

Beaut fine still night here in the capital.

Am scoffing a Sushi and Sashimi platter ahead of a short stroll to the Cake Tin to watch the New Zealand-The Philippines game at 5.30pm.

Look out for me on TV. I’m in my Liverpool FC jersey…
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July 25, 2023 4:20pm
- Mike
  
  It’s been beautiful out and about in our capital this arvo. Lots of people out enjoying the occasion.
  
  1 6
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  July 25, 2023 5:03pm
  - kevn
    
    Working from home…
    
    3 1
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    July 25, 2023 6:33pm
CAKE FACE1

So many questions…

Are the Team of $55 million involved in a cover-up with regards to the Kiri Allan incident?
11 2
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July 25, 2023 5:38pm
- Ghost
  
  How can they be? They’re reporting what is known.
  
  4 1
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  July 25, 2023 5:46pm
  - Keith White
    
    They’re not reporting everything they know. That’s not rumour, it’s the trademark of modern journalism.
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:06pm
    - Ghost
      
      So apart from rumours what aren’t they reporting?
      
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      July 25, 2023 7:18pm
      - Keith White
        
        They are not reporting on this case the way they reported on, for example, Sam Uffindell.
        
        They’re not reporting on this case they way they report on, for example, Julian Batchelor.
        
        They’re not reporting on this case they way they report on, for example, Posie Parker.
        
        Etc.
        
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        July 25, 2023 8:21pm
      - Ghost
        
        How are they reporting on this case? Perhaps like a case that the offender has been charged and the case will be before the courts.
        
        Stuff, newshub, herald were all running live coverage with constant updates.
        
        0 0
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        July 25, 2023 9:20pm
  - JimBobJoe
    
    So who owns the vehicle – is the person known to Ms Allen?
    
    By not reporting that the rumours will breed…
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:56pm
    - Ghost
      
      The media have reported the accident happened outside the home of a senior Justice Ministry official. Nothing to create a rumour in. The lady lives in the house with her husband and son.
      
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      July 25, 2023 8:00pm
- Keith White
  
  Does a bear evacuate its bowels in the woods?
  
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  July 25, 2023 7:05pm
Chris Nisbet

If National/ACT manage to win the upcoming election will Simon Dallow report that NZ has voted in a far right populist government?
How will One News work if Nat/ACT win? Will the government do anything to try and get our national broadcaster to try and report in an unbiased fashion?
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July 25, 2023 6:38pm
- Ghost
  
  Can you recall a time when the media reported in an unbiased fashion?
  
  4 0
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  July 25, 2023 6:42pm
  - Keith White
    
    Yes. I used to deliver the Herald as a young ‘un. The Herald 60 years ago clearly separated factual reporting from editorial and columnist commentary.
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:07pm
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132615705/opposition-takes-aim-at-government-over-kiri-allans-resignation-in-shameful-debate
Whaaa whaaa whaaa-
And of course, if a National Party minister were to be in a similar predicament as Ms Allan, Labour and the Greens would stay respectfully silent and never speak of it again.
Right?
Hypocrites.
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July 25, 2023 6:41pm
- Swifty
  
  That’s my first thought Gravelroad.
  
  Labour and the Greens politicise EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME.
  
  Stinking hypocrites.
  
  (Do they think we’ve forgotten the shit they put into National over Todd Muller?)
  
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  July 25, 2023 6:50pm
  - kowtow
    
    They politicised every single publication in the country when they required them to literally contract to the regime’s ToW bollocks in order to get the wuflu bailout .
    
    That had to be one of the most egregious abuses of power and cynical at that , dressed up as protecting a vulnerable media ( made vulnerable by looney lock downs) .
    
    You can’t make this shit up.
    
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    July 25, 2023 7:10pm
    - Swifty
      
      Agreed.
      
      Shameful. Corrupt.
      
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      July 25, 2023 8:09pm
Swifty

Gotta say, at first blush these Maori land perpetual leases look pretty dodgy.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/494460/of-course-this-is-possible-green-party-doubles-down-on-perpetual-lease-promise

Is this article saying that the owners are legally obliged to renew at lease end of term if the lessee wants it?

I’d be interested in knowing the background and their original intention of such an arrangement.
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July 25, 2023 6:56pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  The perpetual lease agreements from early 1900’s are dreadful… peppercorn rentals and rights of renewal. No one who enter into such arrangements except as an act of charity. Should be overturned and proper rentals agreed or land and enhancements returned to rightful owners…
  
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  July 25, 2023 7:54pm
  - Swifty
    
    That’s my initial thoughts too.
    
    Again, would like to hear the other side in case I’m missing something.
    
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    July 25, 2023 8:07pm
Swifty

I’m not quite clear on exactly what is the problem here:

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300935690/rnz-board-member-makes-fresh-comments-on-kiri-allan-saga-despite-criticism-from-pm

I certainly understand that it would be wrong for a public servant to openly campaign for the incumbent party’s policy positions, for example – not if they wanted to retain their position with a change of government.

But is this guy doing that? Or is he just voicing his personal views, in a democracy, on a matter non-political?

Should being civil servants mean people forfeit their rights to have their say on matters?

Again, I’m not quite clear on the actual issue here.
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July 25, 2023 7:08pm
- Gravelroad
  
  According to Mr Hipkins in the article, this guy is “sharing his political opinions.” – on a public forum.
  So no, not appropriate.
  Making the boss look bad and uncaring .
  Almost as thought he might be a National or ACT supporter.
  As if.
  
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  July 25, 2023 7:55pm
  - Ghost
    
    Rob Campbell was fired for his political comments
    
    2 0
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    July 25, 2023 8:02pm
Hugh Jarse

If [Mod – use his name or chippy] was too win the election, how on earth would he be able to form a Cabinet when one third of the current lot have s*it in the nest and can’t be trusted, one third aren’t capable of having additional portfolios given to them from those who have fouled the nest and the last third are carrying too many portfolio’s to be effective anyway ? He would probably also have a reduced number of MP’s to choose from so would need to rely on the Greens and TPM for his additional Ministers. Vote Labour, get Marama and Golriz as Ministers.
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July 25, 2023 8:39pm
softail 1450

THE FINAL WORD, All this destruction of our Country both financially and culturally can be seated at the feet of one person, Jacinda Ardern, and now she’s off to greener pastures leaving the smoking ruins behind her.
1 0
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July 26, 2023 5:35am

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