General Debate 04 April 2024

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Chuck Bird

Did anyone hear Hosking this morning talk about the very high depreciation of EVs? This not only affects individuals who bought them but also the taxpayers and ratepayers.
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April 4, 2024 8:06am
- slightlyrighty
  
  As someone who works in the industry, the sudden drop in the market for EV and PHEV following the removal of the subsidy and the introduction of road user charges is stunning!
  
  All this tells me is that the motives for people buying these cars is less about saving the environment and being green, and more about saving money.
  
  There is also the issue of the industry exhausting the Early Adopter portion of the market.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:11am
  - cmm
    
    “All this tells me is that the motives for people buying these cars is less about saving the environment and being green, and more about saving money.”
    
    Possibly, but I doubt spending $1000 a year on RUC is really going to move the needle for a virtue signaler who can afford $50k+ for a smugmobile.
    
    The actual cost to purchase an EV has actually come down. I saw VW advertising a $15k price drop (around 20%), so even with the RUC and the subsidies gone it is cheaper to buy a VW EV today than it was a year ago.
    
    More likely the big reason is that the market has saturated or, as you phrase it, has run out of early adopters. That is by far the biggest factor.
    
    All the people who really wanted an EV have bought one. The time to do so was obviously when there were hand outs. So everyone who wanted an EV bought one last year, and now they all one so they are not buying more. There are no more people wanting to buy them.
    
    One or two people I know bought EVs earlier this year predicting this price drop and market slump.
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:33am
    - Keith White
      
      I early-adopted an electric motorsickle 2.5 years ago (no “discount” applied) because I wasn’t sure I’d still be on the planet to be a late adopter, and it’s crazy fun. Where I am working now I’m renting-to-own another brand/type and it’s great for the work commute and the out of town trips. DILLIGAF about anything anyone else buys or doesn’t buy 😀
      
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      April 4, 2024 1:39pm
    - Matt Long
      
      What’s the bet manufacturers just used Labour’s EV subsidies to pad their profits. Funny how many cars just met the subsidy thresholds.
      
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      April 4, 2024 1:41pm
- Simon
  
  Boosted EV drivers no body more stupid.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:41am
- Scooter
  
  No but I wish he would get 2 new pollies, Ginny Andersen is back to her shrill self and Mark Mitchell needs to grow some and stand up to her. Meanwhile Mike is silent, probably hoping to increase ratings by letting them go for it.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:46am
- thirteenstars
  
  Not surprised. I watched a business roundtable a couple of years ago where under discussion was the considerable problem of exactly that.
  
  Mind, you since sales have gone through the floor since the clean car discount was axed it might not be such a problem.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:55am
- bjools
  
  https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a31875141/electric-car-battery-life/
  https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/electric-fleet/policy/ev-batteries-talking-about-degradation
  From this:
  Over time, however, the phone needs to be charged more often as its battery capacity reduces. This is also true of batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs), which share a similar chemistry.
  Considering the tests of Range ( the only thing that really matters), means
  1. Considering the range tests are done under controlled conditions and say “Max” Range, ie done on a track with one person in the car.
  Range is impacted by
  Weather (use of wipers, heating and aircon.)
  Terrain (Hills etc)
  Number of passengers and luggage (actual load)
  Therefore the “life of the battery”, which is measured in number of charges, is impacted drastically.
  2. The effectiveness of the battery will be degraded with time, more charges needed.
  With these 2 problems, the life of the battery is impacted under “real world” conditions and will need replacing much earlier than estimates.
  No wonder nobody will want a 2nd hand one, they are much closer to the extortionate cost of battery replacement.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:58am
  - rouppe
    
    Pity no one told James “you can buy a used EV for a couple of thousand dollars” Shaw
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:13am
  - leoj
    
    Range is only one thing.
    
    The major problem is charging times. Any anxiety is about arriving at a charging station and finding a queue.
    
    Takes the smugness off many virtue signalling faces.
    
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    April 4, 2024 11:46am
    - wsk12345
      
      My mate has a work EV that he pays towards as a salary sacrifice as it’s still cheaper than even the fuel to and from work in his ICE. So he was saying he charges it at work on the fleet chargers when he arrives at 7 am, uses it a couple times during the day for short drives then leaves at the end of the day and drives 40km home….its meant to do 300km+ but he barely makes it back to work the next day. Talk about range anxiety, he’s thinking to give it back and just accept the cost of his diesel truck. He can’t charge the car at home.
      
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      April 4, 2024 12:44pm
  - comm4nder
    
    I bought one of the first Teslas to come to NZ (when they were much cheaper than now). For its sixth birthday I took it back to Tesla because I thought it should have its first service. All they did was replace the wiper blades.
    So far I have detected only a slight degradation of the battery. From the day I bought it until now it takes exactly 30% of the battery to get to my beach house and 30% to get home again, so the degradation in six and a half years is less than 3%.
    Incidentally my bumper sticker says “My car runs on coal” so that nobody will think that I’m a Greenie, but that I bought the car because it is so much more fun to drive and convenient to refuel than an ICE car!
    
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    April 4, 2024 3:45pm
    - JohnRidd
      
      I am happy that it is a good option for you but the idea we are going to stop using petrol or diesel cars soon is crazy. Despite this, there are people talking about phasing out the use of internal combustion engines.
      
      There are a number of practical reasons why it isn’t going to happen, so the question I want answered is are they lying or are they stupid? My guess is they are lying.
      
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      April 4, 2024 4:48pm
      - kowtow
        
        They are lying but they’re also stupid .
        
        Cos they haven’t thought it through .
        
        Once everything is illegal and banned and nothing is working , there’s going to be one hell of a backlash and then what ?
        
        We’re actually getting to the point of what happened behind the Iron Curtain and the Solzenitsen quote ;
        
        “We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”
        ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
        
        Don’t believe me ? Consider all this tranny nonsense being dumped on us. Seriously , no one really believes a cock in a frock is a she and yet……..
        
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        April 4, 2024 5:21pm
      - JohnRidd
        
        Hi Kowtow
        
        I have always loved the Solzenitsen quote.
        
        These policies are designed to cause harm. Not all of the people pushing this are Marxists. Some are just useless idiots. But these policies only make sense if they are intentionally trying to destroy our economy.
        
        I can’t remember if it was Michel Foucoult or Herbert Marcuse ( Marxist philosophers) who concluded that Marx had been wrong when he said that the workers would rise up and overthrow capitalism. It didn’t happen because capitalism made the lives of workers better. Whichever one of them it was concluded that capitalism had to be destroyed by destroying the economy. Which is why we have “net zero”.
        
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        April 4, 2024 6:59pm
- kowtow
  
  For some time now discerning int’l media outlets have been reporting on the demise of the EV scam .
  
  As usual NZ msm coming late to the pardy.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:00am
- lastmanstanding
  
  EV sales tanked again in March. I and others predicted that once the rebate was gone so would the sales. Other countries are experiencing the same. The President and CEO of Toyota ( a person one would expect to know) says that EVs will comprise no more than 30% of the global fleet. The other 70% will be made up of petrol/diesel/hybrid/hydrogen.
  Synthetic fuels will power many of the ICE vehicles.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:30am
  - JerJer
    
    This is true, there are many manufacturers now looking into hydrogen ICE cars. There is even a manufacturer that has produced an engine more powerful that an equivalent petrol engine with longer range using some water injection technology.
    
    You are correct, many ICE cars will continue to operate, with Petrol, or alternative fuels, and there will be hydrogen ICE (starting in a couple of years, most likely from Toyota first). Ferrari are even making a hydrogen ICE. EVs are dead in the water, they will still be around, but they were a stupid idea all along and will remain a very minor part of the market, if they exist at all.
    
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    April 4, 2024 6:52pm
- NothingLeft
  
  EV market is shitting itself, at the end of the day they are just too expensive. Cheapest Model 3 without subsidies is USD$39k, Toyota Corolla USD$22k.
  
  All manufacturers retrenching, many EV companies going under. Tesla will be OK, but are unlikely to get sales growth until they can bring prices down a lot. 2nd hand values will plummet
  
  Their FSD initiative is a bust – their last role of the dice all-neural-net is only travelling about 500km between ‘critical disengagements’ (Ie human driver intercedes to prevent an accident), they need to increase that to about 500,000km to match human accident rates, ie eliminate 999 out of 1000 current errors. Super unlikely as many need to anticipate likely human behaviours in strange circumstances. Maybe it will work with a much larger driving computer, but that is going to be a lot more work and expense to achieve.
  
  Their robots might be a much bigger earner than their cars in a few years.
  
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  April 4, 2024 2:49pm
slightlyrighty

I see the usual sort of apologists are speaking up over the new Hate Speech Laws in Scotland.

Various platitudes along the lines of “You still have freedom of expression, there is now simply the possiblility of legal action if somebody finds what you have said to be inciting hatred”

These people have no idea of the chilling nature of this kind of thinking.
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April 4, 2024 8:07am
- thirteenstars
  
  Indeed.
  
  JK Rowling taunted the Scottish police to “come and arrest me” over her tweets that trans women are in fact men.
  
  The police there have just said her comments were not criminal and no further action would be taken.
  
  https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/04/03/jk-rowling-hate-speech-law-tweets-referred-to-scotland-police/
  
  Sounds like the law has fallen at the first hurdle but that’s not what’s happened. The police have made a political decision not to prosecute a very wealthy public figure but you can guarantee every not-so wealthy, not-so public figure will be caught in their net. The knocks on the door and the veiled threats will proceed and the big chill will set in just as intended.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:26am
  - wsk12345
    
    Rowling has said that if anyone in the public midge sees someone she is happy to repeat the mis-gendering publicly 🙂
    
    Makes punishing people harder 🙂
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:59am
    - Notsofast
      
      More importantly it sends a message to kids if they understand the very public slap down of India Willoughby and his ilk.
      He left an estranged son and a ton of wreckage behind.
      This story should be taught in schools.
      
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      April 4, 2024 10:37am
    - wsk12345
      
      Sorry that was mis-gendering not midge whatever. Autocorrect.
      
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      April 4, 2024 12:46pm
- kowtow
  
  “These people have no idea of the chilling nature of this kind of thinking.”
  
  Oh yes they do.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:31am
- lastmanstanding
  
  The Albo Government has appointed a new Governor-General. Not surprising she is hard Left and Woke. She supported the Voice and calls Australia Day Invasion Day. She is a Republican. She is therefore incapable of being the Monarchs representative in Australia as she opposes the Monarchy. In a constitutional crisis she will be comprised.
  Mind you our GG is Left Woke and a Republican so I guess I shouldnt be critising the Aussies. In both cases two fingered salute to old Chuck.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:35am
  - julesnzuk
    
    It’s not a two fingered salute to “old Chuck”, it’s a two fingered salute to the executive level of the Australian and New Zealand governments – and by extension our heritage, culture and identity. Thankfully the public of both Australia and New Zealand are still sensible on this issue and can see republicanism as the gateway for Marxist chaos that it is. I don’t think either of them will be becoming republics anytime soon.
    
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    April 4, 2024 11:06pm
- CJames
  
  What is more telling is the government and police are going out of their way not to say anything about JK Rowling despite here taunting them. They are now realising the stupidity of the law but can’t back down.
  It is interesting that most complaints are about the First Minister Hunza Useless who made a stupid comment some years ago about being the only non-white present for many situations in a country 95% white. You reap what you sow.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:36am
Matt Long

Biden goes one up on Benedict in the how to mock God and the Catholic Church stakes.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-create-christian-visibility-day-following-bidens-declaration-trans-visibility-day
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April 4, 2024 8:07am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The stupid old fool was quizzed on it the next day by a reporter (not Fox) and he tried to say he never said it, hod this guy is worse than Ardern for the lies
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:47am
  - RightFirstTime
    
    To be fair, unlijke Ardern, Biden is so demented that he probably genuinely forgot what he had said the day before.
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:27am
    - CJames
      
      It wasn’t said. It was written down as a proclamation.
      
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      April 4, 2024 9:37am
- MCōs
  
  So a President Trump would create a ‘Christian Visibility Day’ and presumably cancel the ‘Transgender Visibility Day’
  There seems to be days for everything over there
  
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  April 4, 2024 1:26pm
  - Ghost
    
    March 31st has been transgender day of visibility since 2009. Hmmm, so when trump was president.
    
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    April 4, 2024 1:33pm
    - RichardX
      
      Having said that, Biden was the 1st President to make the proclamation….in 2021 when Easter did not fall on March 31
      
      https://www.newsweek.com/trans-visibility-day-1580123
      
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      April 4, 2024 1:51pm
      - Ghost
        
        He was the first republican president to acknowledge pride month
        
        https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-recognizes-lgbtq-pride-month-first-time-n1012611
        
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        April 4, 2024 2:39pm
    - herb1
      
      Easter wasn’t on 31st March during Trumps presidency
      
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      April 4, 2024 2:01pm
      - Ghost
        
        That’s the problem with having a Holiday whose date constantly changes, it will fall on dates of other events.
        
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        April 4, 2024 2:25pm
artemisia

Paul Goldsmith drawing a line in the sand, in response to illegal occupation of a privately owned site, along with occupier demands somebody buy the site for them. That ‘somebody’ will not be a surprise.

Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Paul Goldsmith said …. “The Crown does sometimes consider the purchase of private properties of high significance, if there is funding available. However, such decisions would be unlikely, when a private site is being illegally occupied.”

Illegal occupiers are a bit slow out of the blocks. Missed the chance for a captain’s call now a particular Prime Minister has left the building.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/513344/northland-hapu-occupies-abandoned-school-demand-whenua-back-at-no-cost
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April 4, 2024 8:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ” previous attempts by iwi, hapū and interested parties to get the whenua back in Māori hands were shut down.”
  Obvious they didn’t want to buy it and wanted the Govt to fork out.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:29am
  - artemisia
    
    Am I the only one to think the headline ‘abandoned school’ , rather than say ‘privately owned’ was chosen to reflect the RNZ’s positioning?
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:04am
  - cmm
    
    “wanted the Govt to fork out.”
    Taxpayer!
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:10am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yes, but the freeloaders do not think that far out of the box. Govt paying is all they know.
      
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      April 4, 2024 9:21am
      - cmm
        
        They relish in screwing the “rich pricks”.
        
        The bastards should read a few Aesop’s Fables. Particularly the goose that laid the golden eggs.
        
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        April 4, 2024 9:54am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Yes, that goose is getting very pissed off.
        
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        April 4, 2024 10:09am
      - cmm
        
        The goose has pissed off to Australia (well at least most of the next generation anyway).
        
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        April 4, 2024 12:33pm
- RoboRob
  
  Goldsmith is being WAY too subtle here. Lets stop pussyfooting around these IWI and environmental groups. How about.
  
  We don’t deal with people involved in illegal activity, including trespass on private property. If these activists don’t get off the property (and allow access to the rightful owners) within 24hrs they will be forcibly removed. If they return the govt will cease all negotiations with their parent organisation (in this case IWI treaty negotiations but also groups like Green peace etc) for 2 years. They will be arrested and charged.
  Each additional time they return a the parent organisation will receive an additional 2year ban and financial charge. The activists will be arrested and charged each time and any government benefits will be cancelled for 6 months each time. This applies to ALL illegal trespass by any group going forward.
  
  These people are thick AND guided by strong ideologies, we need to be clear and tough with them all.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:05am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The Govt is too kind to do this.
    Wimps.
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:23am
  - artemisia
    
    I think the new government will be well aware of opinions of the public and coalition parties and has chosen not to inflame debate. The quiet assertion that illegal occupations on private land will not be getting taxpayer money does send a clear message that is perfect to rinse and repeat.
    
    Meanwhile owners of private land can issue trespass orders.
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:05am
- Countrygirl
  
  The sentences are littered with Maori words which have no meaning for me at all. I am sick of this mongrelising of English. It would be better to either have a total immersion Maori language newspaper or at the very least writing the article in both Maori and English.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:08am
  - Jethrod
    
    And also, what is it with Ngapuhi that they don’t want to settle their Waitangi negotiations with the crown? Titiwhai has gone, Kelvin has gone and there is no dead weight holding them up.
    
    Oh but wait , there is Hone…..
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:15am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350233814/msd-hoped-cutting-coffee-and-cleaning-would-save-jobs-job-losses-are-way
Jeepers, some state paid employees are going to have to do it really tough with these drastic cost cutting measures, aren’t they?
Coffee machines and fancy tea bags removed from the refreshments room!
And what about all those with lactose intolerance? How will they cope with only blue top milk from now on? Or, almost worse, have only bottled water to drink?
Maybe they should bring their own special beverages in to the office – there must be a special well-being allowance available for that, surely,
Then there’s the Covid pandemic-level office cleaning still rattling on.
Hope cleaners are still wearing disposable masks, gloves and overalls – you know- to keep our people safe in 2024.
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April 4, 2024 8:13am
- peterwn
  
  A concern with staffing cuts is whether the wrong people are being let go. For example a department may have had 10 communications/PR people and 90 other staff in 2016. It may now have 30 communications/PR people and 92 other staff. Unless Ministers oversee the cuts properly, the Department may end up with 20 communications/PR people and 80 other staff ie 10 people who were doing real work being let go. This is surely not what the Government intended.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:22am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, if the managers & admin are tasked with the responsibility then that’s a problem. They will look after themselves first.
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:55am
    - peterwn
      
      Got real example. A Manager resigned and top management appointed an outsider to replace him with the expectation the new guy would make staff cuts. The new guy met with his immediate subordinates to get familiar with the organisation and discuss staff cuts which surprise, surprise did not include themselves. The new manager did not meet with those outside his group, they were probably portrayed by his team as troublemakers etc rather than ‘clients’. Furthermore the guy had no formal electrical qualifications but was managing staff doing electrical work. Fortunately the only victim of this was a hedgehog who poked its snout into the live end of a cable.
      Anyway he later admitted to me that he had fired the wrong people (he should have fired his immediate subordinates) and said he could trust me in our relations (I had been slandered by his immediate subordinates).
      
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      April 4, 2024 11:26am
  - artemisia
    
    Anyone who has a look at publicly funded annual reports will have a good idea where savings can be made. The ones I have seen are massive, 100+++ pages, full of photos, word salad, reo and white spaces. And that’s just the annual reports.
    
    Like to see Ministers ask for the past year’s illuminated manuscripts and check they can actually fit the boxes in their offices.
    
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    April 4, 2024 11:25am
    - peterwn
      
      I seem to recollect there was a ‘standard’ for departmental and similar reports years ago. They were uniform in presentation, a standard cover, Parliamentary code reference eg B6 and sized to fit the trays on the Speaker’s table. The Government Printer would have enforced these standards and considered colour etc to be an extravagance.
      It was the advent of colour photo-offset printing machines that enabled an explosion of fancy reports.
      
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      April 4, 2024 11:43am
      - artemisia
        
        Yes and the number of pages was specified and strictly adhered to. Of course there were no comms staffers back then, just rules.
        
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        April 4, 2024 12:29pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Can’t the useless people clean their own smoko room, or is that beneath them?
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:34am
  - pdm
    
    SO I am with you on that.
    
    When I started at the BNZ Waipukurau one of my jobs as `Junior’ was to make the morning and afternoon teas do the dishes and keep the smoko room clean and tidy.
    
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    April 4, 2024 8:44am
    - MCōs
      
      I worked in a section of a big NZ organization for a few years. There were no juniors. Everyone made their own tea/coffee and cleaned their cups after smoko
      So there was about twenty people jostling round the sink wasting time on $70-80/hr. Be better off to employ someone on minimum wages to make whatever drinks anyone wants, clean up the kitchen and the toilets and do some menial tasks around the office and vacuum once a week.
      
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      April 4, 2024 9:47am
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        For once I agree with M-Cos.
        Morning and afternoon breaks are important. A great time to talk about what’s going on. And, to know that you don’t have to make the tea or clean up the place means that your time can be spent on important jobs. It also makes valuable employees feel they are valued.
        I once had a junior clerk who had me tearing my hair out. But every morning and every afternoon she made the most delicious cup of tea. She also left the tea room spotless. One can put up with a big degree of incompetence if that staff member gets the small details exactly right.
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:54pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The cleaners clean the whole place, including the lunch room / kitchen. It is usual in public service offices for folk to load and unload the dishwashers and to keep the place reasonably tidy.
    
    TBH I don’t recall seeing much in the way of flash perks in government lunch rooms. Some had a coffee machine but many still had only instant coffee. The bigger productivity loss was officials leaving the office to buy coffee, a process that could take 20 minutes.
    
    As I have commented previously, a more worrying trend in public service offices is the culture. Specifically, a culture that has developed in the last 10 years and worsened. The typical office is crowded and open plan. There are people screeching, gossiping, talking loudly on the phone and holding impromptu meetings in open plan areas. The only way I got anything done was to wear expensive noise canceling head phones playing white noise.
    
    10 years ago, and certainly 20 years ago these offices were totally different places. They were for doing serious work, not for hosting a clown show.
    
    I fully admit that these experiences have made me an advocate for working from home.
    
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    April 4, 2024 8:59am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “The bigger productivity loss was officials leaving the office to buy coffee, a process that could take 20 minutes.”
      
      Officials is an odd way to describe staff.
      
      Did the staff record their absence from the workplace and amend their timesheets or did they get their coffee on a scheduled break?
      On a break is fine, but if they are taking public money to go shopping then that is theft.
      
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      April 4, 2024 9:35am
      - artemisia
        
        Not just going out for coffee, also the smokers and vapers.
        
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        April 4, 2024 10:54am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I’m sorry to tell you that public servants in New Zealand do not have time sheets.
        
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        April 4, 2024 11:28am
    - wsk12345
      
      Wow – my mate who’s a principal policy advisor says the office is deadly quiet most days and from Wed on there is practically nobody in her floor. She works for one of the big departments.
      
      8 2
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      April 4, 2024 10:03am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Precisely.
      
      Everbody, thanks to the government property edicts, got slammed into battery farm open plan buildings to “save money””. You got a tiny green plastic cube as your bin, a locker for your stuff and had to “hot desk” in these tiny crowded noisy spaces with far too few quiet rooms.
      
      Strangely enough, productivity is shit. If you try and work at the office you need noise cancelling headphones, or you just slope off and work at home – which means its really hard to collaborate.
      
      Then you had to pay people more for treating them like shit – and give them decent coffee to keep them coming in.
      
      “People are our most valuable resource, don’t you know”…. //s
      
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      April 4, 2024 10:42am
  - oldgolfer
    
    I ran the outfit I worked for and cleaned the smoko room.
    
    11 1
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    April 4, 2024 9:08am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      and do you think that was the best use of your time, skills and attention?
      
      4 4
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      April 4, 2024 9:34am
      - Don Beckett
        
        He was also the Health & Safety officer. 🙂
        
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        April 4, 2024 2:57pm
- KH
  
  I once went to see a manager at the hospital, someone running 600 plus staff and associated activity. So bigger than many nationally known companies.
  About $70 million staff cost.
  I groped my way down a corridor without lights. She was there adding up staff leave balances. I did get an instant coffee but no bikkie.
  She explained the darkness, no business card, no bikkie as ” cost savings”.
  Her task which I interrupted was something a junior clerical could do.
  So. — big big money involved. And she was managing the things that did not matter. At the same time her operation was a mess.
  Typical civil servant incompetence.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:58am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    why do you think adding up staff leave balances is something that didn’t matter?
    
    2 13
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    April 4, 2024 9:35am
    - cmm
      
      He didn;t say it doesn’t matter.
      
      He said that it is something a more junior staffer could take care of.
      
      I see that all over the place.
      
      5 years ago one of my bigger customers had office staff who handled a whole lot of activities very efficiently. Need to travel overseas? They sorted out the flights, hotels etc.
      
      Now they have the engineers do these tasks themselves using a corporate website. It takes a few hours to do this.
      
      Since the opportunity cost of an engineer is perhaps $300 to $400 an hour, the faffing around often costs more than the flights themselves.
      
      14 1
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      April 4, 2024 10:00am
    - KH
      
      Dudley.
      I said “Her task which I interrupted was something a junior clerical could do.”
      and I also said. “big big money involved. – she was managing the things that did not matter.”
      I see you don’t understand the principle of managing the important things, so I assume you are civil service trained.
      
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      April 4, 2024 11:12am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Hospital admin is where a lot of money is just plain wasted.
    Some are there for one reason – waiting for knock-off time.
    
    7 1
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    April 4, 2024 9:37am
- Vinicius
  
  The same Stuff article says this:
  
  • 9 roles are going from the Ministry of Ethnic Communities.
  • 63 roles are going from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
  
  Can anyone give me any sane, rational reasons why these two ministries shouldn’t be scrapped?
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:02am
  - Countrygirl
    
    Sorry, fat fingers
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:53am
  - artemisia
    
    Half of those now redundant roles at the Ministry for Pacific Peoples were vacant. The Ministry was recently on the front page for OTT spending so probably figured that the light at the end of the tunnel was the train heading their way. Make the numbers look good by including vacancies though it is supposed to be roles made redundant so does wholesale scrapping of vacancies mean they were recruiting for roles not actually required?
    
    Most of that Ministry’s functions are available elsewhere in government anyway – based on need not ethnicity – or can and should be done by the community not taxpayers.
    
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    April 4, 2024 12:42pm
- bjools
  
  A couple of years ago, I did a job at a Govt. Dept. office.
  When I arrived, there were 2 waiters standing next to at least a dozen bottles of wine, cases of orange juice and coke.
  I asked what this was for and if I was in the right place?
  Answers
  1.It was a leaving do for someone
  2. Yes I was in the right place.
  I was there for several hours, in this time at least 50-70 people wandered in, partook and left.
  I never saw the person who’s party it was.
  I was told however, that I could have a drink, as it was all paid for by the department.
  Maybe this behaviour could be stopped to save money?
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:06am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    The article is propaganda. They’re focusing on little things (plunger coffee and milk) to get sympathy and then include a throwaway line about “catering”. I would expect catering is where the big expense is.
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:54am
Maggie Pie

I’ll tell you who have gone very very quiet. Mallard and Goff.

Pretty sure we heard Winston say….. the first thing he would do is recall the pair of grifters the moment he became Foreign Minister.

https://act.org.nz/trevor_leaving_early_for_knighthood_of_shame
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April 4, 2024 8:20am
- pdm
  
  Best he shifts one to Outer Mongolia and the other to Belarus with pay cuts to 25% of current salaries to reflect their new responsibilities.
  
  We don’t want either of them back in NZ any time soon.
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:47am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I know Winnie follows my posts…. hope he reads yours as well pdm 😀
    
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    April 4, 2024 8:55am
  - G152
    
    We do have some Antarctic islands that need a presence. Either of those two would fit in nicely with with penguins and seagulls
    
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    April 4, 2024 11:30am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yeah right
  
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  April 4, 2024 8:50am
- Benedict Yu
  
  That is normal. How many New Zealand ambassadors do you hear from?
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:03am
- peterwn
  
  In their diplomatic posts their jobs is to represent NZ’s interests and this would mean keeping right out of NZ internal politics while serving as diplomats. So it is quite right and proper that they are very quiet with respect to NZ politics.
  Anyway NZ does not follow the USA practice where ambassadors tender their resignations when a new President takes office. NZ has recalled only one Ambassador or High Commissioner (equivalent to Ambassador) for political reasons in recent times and that was a typical Muldoon act.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:13am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Exactly. Goff and Mallard will stay put.
    
    4 2
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    April 4, 2024 9:30am
Anthony Melchett

I wonder if the hurricanes woman’s team focusing on hating white people and the government is going to help turn around their 1.4 million dollar loss from last year?

Judging by the amount of yellow seats that attend the matches I’m guessing not.

Go woke, go broke. It’s as reliable as socialism failing.

On another note, now that the actual hurricanes team has lost the world’s best halfback for the year you can be sure that the stint at the top of the table is short lived
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April 4, 2024 8:23am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  One does wonder about the contribution the wahine Hurricanes have made to the bottom line the last few years?
  
  Surely the success is so great, that tens of thousands turn out weekly to watch them perform great feats of sportspersonship?
  
  One also recalls the similarly glorious success of the Trans Tasman netball competition…
  
  What was that saying again, go woke go…
  
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  April 4, 2024 10:46am
  - MCōs
    
    “One does wonder about the contribution the wahine Hurricanes have made to the bottom line the last few years?”
    The Hurricanes Poua have played a total of thirteen games thus far with last year being their first full season and one to go this year
    Non Black Ferns are paid a $17,000min
    
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    April 4, 2024 8:09pm
imalwaysright

I thought Ben said all of the missiles he fires into the people of Gaza are surgical.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-airstrike-gaza-kills-foreign-aid-workers-hamas-run-media-office-says-2024-04-01/
I wonder how many other people have been killed by mistake.
No wonder Ben is at adern level local support in Israel.
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April 4, 2024 8:33am
- Che Guava
  
  Given the advanced technology that the US keeps supplying them with, they can be very precise when they want to be (age restricted video):
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26PXnP054XA
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:27am
  - cmm
    
    Can be very precise is not the same as always being very precise. Even the best munitions fail occasionally.
    
    Still heaps better than the Gazan rubbish which scores an own goal most of the time.
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:04am
    - Che Guava
      
      There was no “failure” on display in that clip. They hunted those four men, who were obviously unarmed, and then they deliberately murdered them from a safe distance. Real heroes. This is the harsh reality of the “self-defence” many of you advocate.
      
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      April 4, 2024 11:01am
      - cmm
        
        Well the video is packed with emotion and not a hell of a lot of context. For example it is a stretch to call that “genocide”. Genocide is the destruction of many people. Not just 4.
        
        They are not obviously unarmed. They are not obviously armed, but that’s different.
        
        We don’t know the context here of why these guys were targeted. We don’t know what they were doing 5 minutes earlier. We don’t know where they were going.
        
        Were they tracked coming out of a tunnel? Were they terrorists who had dumped their weapons and were then tracked to an area away from innocents so that they could be dealt with without harming others?
        
        It’s a complex picture and if you just watch propaganda from either side, without context, then you are liable to be misinformed.
        
        Munitions are expensive. Israel is not just going to expend them on 4 random dudes with no justification.
        
        It can be fully justifiable to kill combatants from afar if there is no reasonable way to take them prisoner. It is called war. Happens all the time.
        
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        April 4, 2024 12:47pm
      - Che Guava
        
        It’s hilarious reading you try to explain away things rather than just believing what you can see with your “lying eyes.”
        
        If those four guys were Jewish and the drone was controlled by Palestinians, we’d be being told that it was proof that holocaust 2.0 was imminent.
        
        If anyone still wonders why Palestinians hate the Israelis, it is acts like those captured in that clip that goes a long way to explain it. It’s a perfect instance of the wider dynamic of the last 80 years.
        
        At the end of the day, there is far more video evidence doing the rounds of Jewish atrocities against Palestinians than the other way around.
        
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        April 4, 2024 1:14pm
      - Cassandra
        
        Che: your statement below about video evidence is totally untrue. Do you have something verifiable? Nothing shows Israelis doing the sort of things Hamas did.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:28pm
      - miltonF
        
        Exactly Che. The sheer hypocrisy of this war.
        
        Here are a couple of obvious truths that are hard for people to accept:
        
        Israel claims to be targeting Hamas, although the casualties are mostly civilian. Something like a ratio of 10:1 or worse. Israel would NEVER kill 10 Jews to eliminate 1 Hamas operative. But they are happy to kill 10 Palestinians to eliminate 1 Hamas. It’s quite easy to see what is happening here.
        
        Israel just launched a missile into Syria, targeting the Iran embassy. They murdered 12 people. Israel has been launching strikes like this for decades. It is actually terrorism or an act of war. Take your pick. No one can deny that if Iran did similar, and attacked an Israeli embassy, anywhere in the world, this would be an act of terrorism.
        
        Is it really that hard to see why Israel’s neighbours despise them so much? It seems that the “golden rule” or “treating people the way you want to be treated” is not part of their morality.
        
        I am not defending Hamas or their actions. Just pointing out that Israel is no angel in this regard either.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:35pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Some people seem to have conveniently forgotten the Oct 7th unprovoked attack
  and massacre of men, women and children launched by Hamas on innocent Israelis.
  And all those still held hostage by the Iranian backed terrorist group.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:48am
  - Che Guava
    
    Any political capital and sympathy the Israelis may have had from Oct 7th has been well and truly destroyed by their subsequent savagery on a far greater scale. They are bombing civilians and starving the survivors to death. The whole world can see this, or at least the sane ones can.
    
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    April 4, 2024 11:03am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Can just see you in a keffiyeh Che, out there chanting “From the river to the sea…..” with the rest of your Green commie mates.
      
      LOL!!
      
      14 4
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      April 4, 2024 11:38am
      - Che Guava
        
        I’d tend to call myself hard right, but whatever helps you rationalise things is OK with me.
        
        If I happen to agree with “Green commies” on this issue, then so be it.
        
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        April 4, 2024 1:12pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Very sad comment Maggie, somewhat beneath your usual self.
        
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        April 4, 2024 1:34pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Wait a minit Ra… Che seemed to insinuate I was ‘insane’ 🙁
        
        Can hardly let that pass without retaliation.
        
        7 1
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        April 4, 2024 2:20pm
      - Ghost
        
        Aren’t you? It’s more fun being insane than an uptight ****
        
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        April 4, 2024 2:33pm
    - surfing
      
      BS… that is the line used by Hamas.
      
      Hamas want Israel to react because they know Israel has bigger guns. This is their marketing plan.
      
      6 0
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      April 4, 2024 1:01pm
    - Taieri
      
      All Hamas needs to do is to proclaim an unilateral cease fire.
      
      9 0
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      April 4, 2024 1:15pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Taieri
        and undo all their “”marketing”” strategic plan. If HAMAS declare ceasefire they have sacrificed tens of thousands for NOTHING. and Netanyahu will carry on as he always has. I say Netanyahu rather than Israel.
        
        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/25/un-gaza-ceasefire-vote
        
        You do realise that the Netanyahu is loosing the war of public opinion, Hamas main objective.
        
        All the rhetoric, river to the sea etc is just part of the “”game””
        
        I am surprised that Kiwi blog (NZs top political blog) has so many commenters who are naive on the 5d strategic game called politics.
        
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        April 4, 2024 1:41pm
      - MCōs
        
        Sure
        
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        April 4, 2024 1:50pm
      - Taieri
        
        and undo all their “”marketing”” strategic plan.
        ————
        
        I know perfectly well that this is not going to happen.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:37pm
    - leoj
      
      Equivalence and fairness do not apply when justice is needed.
      
      Hamas brought this all on themselves. They want destruction so let’s give it to them. It’s the only thing they understand.
      
      That you support them is very telling and totally sick.
      
      6 4
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      April 4, 2024 1:31pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Let’s not lose sight of the Hamas manifesto – KILL ALL JEWS. Has been for 70 + years, and Islam’s for 1400 years.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:09pm
      - miltonF
        
        Au contraire.
        
        There is a difference between supporting Hamas and opposing the killing and starving of innocent women and children. A distinction that many on this site seem unable to appreciate.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:43pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Milton ,
        That’s right, there seem to be some here who label anyone, who doesnt support anything and everything that the Israeli government does, as antisemitic.
        It seems to be a sin to not cheer the destruction of those people who are caught in the middle.
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:40pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        So no innocent women and children were killed on Oct 7?
        One of the worst crimes the world has ever seen.
        Your hypocrisy is rank.
        And its Hamas seizing the food and taking it for themselves.
        Your bias and Jew Hatred is making you blind
        
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        April 4, 2024 9:02pm
- imalwaysright
  
  I’m sure Ben appreciates your support, the way its going he may also soon be reading your posts.
  Is the goal the total elimination of all of the people in Gaza ?
  
  There is a name for that.
  
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  April 4, 2024 10:06am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Reading it up, it sounded pretty surgical. Three vehicles, 3 missiles.
  
  Guess this is what happens when Hamas regularly uses ambulances and aid vehicles as cover?
  
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  April 4, 2024 10:49am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP. That’s exactly what they reported on the Bolt Show last night.
    The IDF determined that Hamas were using the Central Kitchen aid convoy
    to get around Gaza.
    
    6 1
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    April 4, 2024 11:32am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Well, bad things are going to happen if you try to deliver aid in a War Zone
    I note there is no comment about how when Aid was delivered, Hamas tried to seize it and panic ensues with the truck drivers driving off for their lives and several Gazans killed. Blamed on Israel of course.
    Meanwhile Israel killed 5 senior IRGC in Damascus in a surgical strike
    Good job.
    https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/12/israeli-strike-in-damascus-takes-out-top-iranian-revolutionary-guards-commander-reza-mousavi/
    
    In other news the US is delivering 25 new F35’s 2000 x 2000lb bombs and 500 x 500 lb bombs.
    Given they have almost cleaned out Gaza of the murdering terrorists I would say those are for Hezbollah- who are probably next
    The 50,000+ Israelis displaced from their homes in the North are undoubtedly looking forward to Hezbollah being stopped from continuously attacking them so they can go home
    
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    April 4, 2024 12:35pm
    - virtualmark
      
      The Damascus strike was impressive.
      
      Row of buildings. Iranian embassy on side. Canadian embassy on the other. Completely destroyed the IRGC building without really damaging either of those neighbouring buildings.
      
      And apparently the strike was carefully timed for a brief window when the five(?) IRGC heads were in the building but the Iranian ambassador had just left to return to the embassy. (Killing the ambassador would be casus belli).
      
      Shows a remarkable level of intelligence info, which would have to worry the Iranians.
      
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      April 4, 2024 1:32pm
      - miltonF
        
        Would you say the same if it was an Iranian missile that destroyed an Israeli embassy? Or would you be signing a different tune?
        
        An explanation for support of this terrorist act is needed.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:45pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        milton- where do you think all the missiles Hezbollah, the Houtis and Hamas are firing come from?
        
        I do despair at how the quality of commentators on this blog has declined.
        So many who know fuck all.
        And then theres the nutters and their bigotry
        SAD!
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:00pm
      - virtualmark
        
        milton, call it professional respect. The Israelis seem to have pulled off a complex attack with ease.
        
        Doesn’t mean they can’t cock up elsewhere … for example the misguided attack on the WCKitchen workers a few days ago.
        
        But note that the Israeli attack on Damascus was a direct response to a drone attack on Israel’s naval dockyard in Eilat. So it was a retaliation, not a baseless provocation.
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:28pm
- G152
  
  Ever thought that it might be the accompanying drivers and guards who are the targets?
  hamas hide in schools and hospitals and amongst the civilians
  
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  April 4, 2024 11:33am
KH

The Israelis have now killed an Australian aid worker. In their usual mad dog kill everything way, they don’t realise they are destroying the support they once had from the rest of the world.
Without world support Israel won’t last another fifty years.
If you support Israel continuing, you would encourage them to shape up.
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April 4, 2024 8:45am
- Grunter
  
  Israel is in a no-win situation IMO.
  
  They either carry on as they have been, and suffer the consequences from the Muslim world, or they pull back and have some sort of sham settlement with the Hamas head-choppers.
  
  Neither option is sustainable for long-term survivability, let alone prosperity.
  
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  April 4, 2024 11:20am
- All_on_Red
  
  I agree KH, Israel needs to shape up and destroy the evil cancer that Hamas is completely.
  Also support or not for Israel is clearly polarised so I don’t think Israel gives a fuck about convincing you and your ilk to support them
  
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  April 4, 2024 12:38pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    I sometimes wonder about the mental state/logic used by those who believe that HAMAS can be destroyed.
    
    HAMAS is based on an idea, not one man(or group of men) personal desires.
    
    For every HAMAS fighter killed, they will be replaced by their offspring or Kin looking for revenge.
    
    I think of Russia and USA trying to eliminate the Taliban in Afghanistan. Total failure from both countries. The Taliban is based on an idea(religious belief).
    
    In my view HAMAS is the same. A belief system. In their case, freedom from Israel oppression.
    
    The HAMAS attack on Israel (remember lots of other parties/people were involved) has focused the mind of those with limited ability to use critical thinking and hence the sheeple crying eliminate HAMAS at all cost.
    
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    April 4, 2024 1:50pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      I have to laugh at you talking about ‘limited ability to use critical thinking’
      You are woefully uninformed.
      Israel doing nothing is not an alternative.
      But hey, you carry on with your Jew Hating bias which blinds your own thinking
      
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      April 4, 2024 3:02pm
      - Grunter
        
        I must have missed Ra Henare’s “Jew Hating” post?
        
        Red – and I thought I was the only one that triggered you 🙂
        
        For what it’s worth – I agree with Ra above. No matter what you believe, the radical ‘head-choppers’ (Hamas/Hezbollah/Taliban/whatever) have been attacking Israel for a few thousand years. And blowing the crap out of Gaza in 2024 is not going to stop them – in fact, it will make them worse, much, much worse. If that’s what Israel wants, then that’s their call. But their actions always have consequences.
        
        There are no winners in this war. Israel is now in this donkey-deep. They are deluded if they think they can “win” by killing more people.
        
        And if they now stop – that won’t work either. There is no ‘solution’. Just more killing…..this is a total cluster.
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:41pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Given Ra is responding to me, I would say he is the one triggered.
        And you too obviously.
        You need to read the other rubbish he writes to see the Jew Hating.
        Rubbish is what you both have in common. And I bet you are both very old.
        How are your Russian Propaganda YTers these days. Nuclear War soon?
        So funny
        
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        April 4, 2024 3:53pm
      - Grunter
        
        🙂 🙂
        
        Your argument style does remind me of Chloe….and Greta
        
        Keep reading your beloved Institute for the Study of War (ISW). I’m sure Victoria Nuland has so much more time to write up more Op-Ed propaganda now that she has been fired from the State Dept. Her sister-in-law Kimberly Kagan and her team of extreme war hawks at IWS must be so proud of how Ukraine is going!
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:09pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Greta and Choe?
        Lol
        Is that the best you got?
        Laughable from the guy who follows the Duran and Southfront – who Greta and Chloe probably follow!
        Your gullibility is hilarious.
        You guys are such a joke.
        How is your tin foil holding out?
        
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        April 4, 2024 8:59pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        I am not Jew hating as you call it. Dont hate anyone or any group. Well Indian shysters maybe.
        
        That is why I say Netanyahu. the criminal responsible for all this crap.
        
        But you believe whatever you want to believe.
        
        Like others, I am just expressing an opinion. Which I believe is much more nuanced that your radical Canterbury style view.
        
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        April 4, 2024 10:34pm
  - MCōs
    
    Israel are playing a game of whack a mole. Whoever they kill they will never make the Palestinians love them
    
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    April 4, 2024 2:01pm
  - KH
    
    Don’t distort what I say Red.
    And yes Israel does not give a about what anybody thinks. But they have practical supporters, including the USA, and the support is eroding rapidly.
    If the USA withdraws support, and they might, Israel is doomed. Even if it takes 50 years.
    And worldwide the disgust is growing.
    To survive they need to think ahead a bit. A lot.
    
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    April 4, 2024 7:53pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Rubbish
      There is strong support for Israel worldwide.
      Dont confuse the MSM views with reality. The majority of the ME hates Hamas and wants Israel to succeed in killing them all.
      There is disgust for the Jew Haters Oct 7 exposed- like you.
      You forget that Israel has a very advanced tech industry.
      The US needs its Miltech and as such realpolitik means the US will forever be tied with Israel because it needs what Israel military industrial base produces. Just like their allies the Sauds
      I find people like you so blinded by your animus you cant see reality.
      Did you get a thrill when Oct 7 happened?
      
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      April 4, 2024 8:55pm
All_on_Red

What goes on inside Bidens Head
A Babylon Bee Expose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykxNSVg9Bh8&t=4s
9 2
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April 4, 2024 8:53am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Idiot box Breakfast have found the homeless guy selling cheap coffees in Auckland.
Well done TV1, you are only a week late with this.
13 2
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April 4, 2024 9:00am
- RoboRob
  
  Luckily I dont know anything about this. Is this guys business GST registered, does he meet food hygene standards and does he have council permits to operate a business on the footpath? Is he notifying Winz of his additional income?
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:10am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    He is getting a permit. Council started off hard on him, but the backlash have quietened them down. Looks like they are trying to help him.
    The guy is having a go, but meeting lots of red tape. He is at rock bottom. Lost his wife and family and now homeless. I hope he makes it.
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:02am
    - RoboRob
      
      Great to hear. Good on him. Sometimes we mke it too hard to get going.
      
      4 1
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      April 4, 2024 1:22pm
  - cmm
    
    He only needs to be GST registered if he sells more than $70k a year or such.
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:05am
  - Ra Henare
    
    You describe the Nannyism problem of NZ.
    
    Council Permits
    Food hygiene standards(its coffee for ferk sake)
    
    Why are we not all celebrating his gumption and fortitude.
    
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    April 4, 2024 1:54pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Ra,
      Exactly
      
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      April 4, 2024 3:14pm
- Gravelroad
  
  But, but, we have just had the Easter hols.
  You can’t expect professional TV people to be working over the Easter hols looking for news stories.
  Watched Te news on TV1 on Sunday night.
  It was obvious that just about every item was a flimsy “filler” story extracted from some video library established for slow news days and to teach moaning viewers a lesson.
  See what happens when you criticise us? You get no news.
  (If indeed the street guy making instant coffee and selling it actually falls into the category of “news”)
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:28am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    My point was this is over a week old. TV1 are not reporting, they are repeating.
    No journalists anymore.
    
    11 1
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    April 4, 2024 10:04am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I won’t be bothered if TV One news disappears into the ether.
      
      I can’t see that many of us are too distraught that TV One /RNZ journos are facing uncertain times.
      
      13 1
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      April 4, 2024 10:54am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        I watch because the speaker of the house insists on watching breakfast.
        Keep the queen be happy and the whole hive is happy.
        
        5 1
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        April 4, 2024 11:00am
      - cas
        
        Both channels have different sports news so that part is worth watching( or skipping through if they are not actually featuring sport but interviewing some player or coach about a game in the future). Last night I managed to watch both news channels 2 hours of ‘news’ in 10 minutes total.
        
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        April 4, 2024 12:37pm
      - Countrygirl
        
        Cas talking about sport. Has anyone watched a fantastic short series on utube called There Can Be Only One?. If you are interested in MotoGP you will particularly love it. It’s showing 2022 and 2023 racing. I can only hope that 2024 is not far away.
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:42pm
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION

Heard Sean Plunkett yesterday refer to….

“the convicted fraudster Dame Jenny Shipley”

Would he be correct in saying that? My partner seems to think he is 🙁
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April 4, 2024 9:07am
- RoboRob
  
  I think it would be correct but also pretty harsh.
  
  A business she was a director of got done and she, and the other directors were help personally responsible and fined I believe.
  
  Do the crime face the penalties.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:12am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, was that the same lot that included the father of treaty settlements, one Douglas Graham?
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:31am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    No,
    
    Dame Jenny Shipley’s dereliction of duty was with Mainzeal; Sir Doug Graham’s was with Lombard Finance.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/sir-douglas-graham-retains-knighthood/M3RA3CQQCFWVKX54O5CSS6KIOI/
    
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    April 4, 2024 10:12am
    - pdm
      
      Jenny Shipley was Mainzeal I think.
      
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      April 4, 2024 3:00pm
  - Jack5
    
    Wasn’t Graham on the Government side of Ngai Tahu’s sweetheart treaty settlement?
    
    On the other side, acting for the tribe as a lawyer, was Chris Finlayson.
    
    This is from the Wikipedia entry on Finlayson:
    
    At Bell Gully he spent years fighting for Ngai Tahu against the government, pursuing its treaty claims through a series of high-profile court battles.
    
    “I used to love going to the office in the morning when we were suing the Crown” Finlayson said in a speech in 2009.
    
    “Ngai Tahu mastered the art of aggressive litigation, whether it was suing the Waitangi Tribunal and [National Treaty negotiations minister] Doug Graham or the Director-General of Conservation. It was take no prisoners and it resulted in a good settlement.”
    
    The article says the signing of the Treaty deal with Ngai Tahu in 1997 was the highlight of his legal career.
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Finlayson
    
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    April 4, 2024 11:04am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Mainzeal were found to be trading insolvent because the Chinese owners defaulted on a loan from Mainzeal. The courts decided that the loan should have been impaired (before the default) in the financial statements, which would have shown them to be insolvent.
  I haven’t seen any indication that should have seen the Directors impair the loan before the default.
  
  Basically, the Chinese owners took off and took all the money and left the Directors holding the bag. The Directors were then used as scapegoats by the Courts so they could pretend there was justice for the Creditors.
  
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  April 4, 2024 10:05am
  - Jack5
    
    The post of Libertarians are Right is talking about Richard Yan.
    
    He has an interesting background. Yan was the son of a leader, perhaps the head, of Rotary in China before the Communist takeover. The father seems also to have been a friend of China’s Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai. During the repressive Mao Tse-Tung regime, Richard Yan, in his early teenage, surprisingly was able to move to Auckland, where people either associated with Rotary or nominated by it, in turn acted as host to him while he completed his education. Richard Yan later moved to America, again apparently hosted or helped by people associated with Rotary.
    
    Later Richard Yan returned to New Zealand and, with those old friends helping him find seed capital, began his business ventures. These included a raid on Mair, a Christchurch-based company that dominated the tanning industry. This succeeded with methods that would later have been ruled out by tightened stock exchange procedures. Yan expanded the scope and size of Mair, and broadened it within New Zealand with the Mainzeal group of comapanies.
    
    The ambitions begame international when the company bought – from the Communist State – China’s biggest tannery, in Shanghai. Shanghai was quickly becoming the world centre of shoe making, with hides shipped largely from the United States and processed there. In theory, it should have been a winner.
    
    Other ventures followed, including setting up Beijing’s first big aquarium. With land prices impossibly high for an NZ company, Yan negotiated with a communist club that owned a huge sports ground for rights to build the stadium under a small lake inside the club area.
    
    Yan was a man of great ambition, but his business wings proved to be of wax and melted from the entrepreneurial heat.
    
    Mainzeal’s liquidators are now chasing him for $60 million.
    
    The Supreme Court also ruled that Yan, Jenny Shipley, and two other directors were also liable to the liquidators for $6.6 million plus 10 years of interest.
    
    This article has the gist:
    
    https://buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/mainzeal-saga-ends-in-the-supreme-court/
    
    The two paragraphs you can read from this South China Morning Post paywalled article show that this case is significant, even in Asia:
    
    https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3250203/shanghai-businessman-richard-yan-sought-new-zealand-liquidators-us60-million-debt-he-owes-collapsed
    
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    April 4, 2024 2:34pm
kowtow

The usual unblanced , emotional , hysterical, anti Israeli screeching media making so much and continuing noise over death of aid workers.

But not so much over all the Arabs killed there by western govt ‘aid’ , air dropped on their ‘eads.
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April 4, 2024 9:08am
- All_on_Red
  
  Indeed, mind you there are no depths to the bias and hypocrisy of Jew Haters.
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/08/gaza-aid-airdrop-kills-civilians-when-parachute-fails-to-open-witness-says
  
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  April 4, 2024 12:43pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Ironically, the cargo drop where the parachutes failed to open was from a UAE Air Force C-17. So it was basically Arab Muslims accidentally killing other Arab Muslims.
    
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    April 4, 2024 1:28pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

TOW Comic for high school kids Part 36.
Who was responsible for Maori having to leave some of their lands?
Maori were.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/analysis-treaty-of-waitangi-comic-for-high-school-students-has-been-quietly-brainwashing-away-since-2018-part-36/
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April 4, 2024 9:15am
Maggie Pie

FREE RANGE ASYLUM.

Man believed to be a candidate on Green Party list
spotted in Ellerslie Shopping Centre…..

https://twitter.com/KiwiStreamNZ/status/1774986452461559859
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April 4, 2024 9:28am
- KH
  
  Everybody on the Green Party list, because of the regular dropouts, gets to be an MP.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:34am
- Inandout
  
  Possibly he was a public servant who was just given the DCM.
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:37am
- sirknz
  
  When your morning meth kicks in just a little too hard…
  
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  April 4, 2024 9:55am
Grunter

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released previously hidden reports of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.

The 780,000 reports were received shortly after the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, and show people experienced a wide range of post-vaccination problems, including heart inflammation, miscarriages, and seizures.

Of course, this will have nothing to do with the ongoing global problem of excess deaths!!

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/cdc-releases-hidden-covid-19-vaccine-injury-reports-5617872?
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April 4, 2024 9:56am
- Bridgenag
  
  Also Criminal Complaint vs. SwissMedic/mRNA Vax
  Swiss Lawyer Dr. Philipp Kruse provides a comprehensive summary of mRNA “vaccine” regulatory failures and lies
  
  https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/criminal-complaint-vs-swissmedicmrna?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
  
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  April 4, 2024 1:26pm
surfing

State education at the primary level is going through a revolutionary shift into teaching Maori.

Friends at the local primary with younger kids are very worried, because a significant amount of time is being used to teach maori wonderfulness to their non Maori children.

Anyone here with primary age kids going through this?
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April 4, 2024 10:24am
- rouppe
  
  No, but my son at Canterbury university is having to acknowledge his privilege in first year engineering.
  
  I’m telling him: pass the test, but don’t believe this garbage for a moment.
  
  Since the overall test makes up 20% of his overall mark, he can’t tell them to shove it
  
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  April 4, 2024 10:58am
- Hometruth
  
  My Grandsons math teacher pronounces numbers in moari which makes it hard for him to understand. Also his english teacher at an earlier school after giving a lesson on N.Z history, at the end of the end said he was ashamed to be a white man
  
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  April 4, 2024 11:24am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That should be complained about at a higher level.
    (if you don’t want to go to the Principal, or head of BOT…. send an email to Minister of Education and cc David Seymour – Assoc. Min of Ed)
    
    If your child is not at a maori-immersion school, then you should expect all math class instructions to be in English in a NZ state school.
    
    It is possible that they have been doing a maths unit focused on “Maori maths”… but there should also be clear guidance in English…so that ALL class members can be engaged in learning.
    
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    April 4, 2024 12:57pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      Sorry about the accidentally down tick. I tried to uptick but missed!
      
      7 0
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      April 4, 2024 1:35pm
    - Countrygirl
      
      A Maori maths unit?. I think I would struggle to do a lesson plan for that.
      
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      April 4, 2024 4:50pm
- Notsofast
  
  Below from a friend:
  
  “Its much deeper in education than we realise. My daughter, a qualified secondary school teacher is working for a diploma to become a primary teacher. To pass, she has to find 15 sources of maori creativity giving them their maori names plus macrons, and then translate and explain.
  I’m gloomy that the maorification of education can be reversed. ”
  
  This seems less bad than maths in maori as Hometruth describes.
  
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  April 4, 2024 12:49pm
Maggie Pie

CNN banner reporting….. Trumpy has lost his immunity bid to delay Stormy Daniels hush money criminal trial.

They’re definately out to get him one way or the other 🙁
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April 4, 2024 10:25am
- virtualmark
  
  Or … there is clear evidence that he committed a crime. That crime was done in conjunction with Michael Cohen, who has already been tried, convicted and served a prison sentence for, basically, his part in that same crime. But Trump was not charged at the same time because he was President then, and protocol is that sitting Presidents not be charged with crimes. Now Trump is no longer President it is proper to bring the case.
  
  But, yes, on the flip side, it would have been proper to bring this case in 2021, not 2024.
  
  My take is that if Trump were innocent then he would want his day in Court. But he’s continually delayed this trial … which doesn’t seem to be the actions of an innocent man.
  
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  April 4, 2024 1:25pm
  - kowtow
    
    ‘But he’s continually delayed this trial … which doesn’t seem to be the actions of an innocent man.’
    
    Ah so , we have a new standard for determining guilt , none of that actual evidence guff , pfft.
    
    Roland Freisler eat your heart out.
    
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    April 4, 2024 2:30pm
    - virtualmark
      
      I didn’t say he was guilty, and he’s absolutely entitled to his day in court.
      
      What I did say is that his behaviour is inconsistent with an innocent man’s typical behaviour. If you’re innocent and wrongly charged then surely you’d want to have your day in court asap to present the evidence of your innocence, no?
      
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      April 4, 2024 3:08pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Virt,
        Unfortunately Trump has had bad experiences with judges lately. Its hard for him to get a fair trial.
        
        5 1
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        April 4, 2024 3:25pm
      - kowtow
        
        The innocent shouldn’t be charged and frog marched into court in the first place.
        
        4 1
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        April 4, 2024 4:02pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Hang on, hang on.
        
        Kowtow, just a few comments above you say “Ah so , we have a new standard for determining guilt , none of that actual evidence guff , pfft.”
        
        Then in your very next comment you say “The innocent shouldn’t be charged and frog marched into court in the first place.”
        
        Um so does this mean we now … have a new standard for determining innocence, none of that actual evidence guff???
        
        Look the outline of the NY AG’s case is clear, because we’ve already seen it from the Michael Cohen trial in 2018. The evidence was easily sufficient to convict Cohen, and it looks equally damning for Trump. So although Trump is still properly due the presumption of innocence it certainly does look like an uphill challenge for him here.
        
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        April 4, 2024 4:35pm
      - kowtow
        
        ‘Um so does this mean we now … have a new standard for determining innocence, none of that actual evidence guff???’
        
        No , you well know our system stands on the fact that we are all presumed innocent until proven guilty ( in a criminal case , beyond a reasonable doubt , and slightly less so in civil cases) . The standard is not establishing innocence , we are innocent , it’s up to the state to prove guilt , not for the innocent to defend themselves . Yet your TDS has you throwing around sentences such as “My take is that if Trump were innocent then he would want his day in Court”
        
        So why not , let’s just pick anyone up ,especially our political opponents , willy nilly as per old Fritzy Friesler and when they appear reluctant to get into the stand , all bloodied and bruised , make our judgement based on their demeanour and not the evidence .
        
        Pfft , under this new judicial system who needs evidence .
        Kamerade.
        
        And on a really serious note . These idiots pursuing Trump want to be very careful about the dangerous forcers they’r e unleashing. Possibly every President in modern history could/should be in court on charges ( war crimes at the very least , excepting Mr Trump on that one) and yet all this lawfare is reserved for Trump .
        
        Have you asked yourself ; what’s going on ?
        
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        April 4, 2024 6:00pm
      - virtualmark
        
        kowtow,
        
        Presidents do have civil immunity for *official* acts performed in office. So, for example, you can’t sue the President because your relation died in a drone strike the President ordered.
        
        No one, including the President has criminal immunity. That’s why we say no one is above the law.
        
        Can you accept the possibility that Trump may indeed have committed crimes? If the NY AG simply roll out the evidence that the Feds used in the Michael Cohen case then Trump seems to be in real legal jeopardy. Yes, he’s innocent until proven guilty. But it does look like a troubling case for him to defend.
        
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        April 4, 2024 7:36pm
- mandk
  
  They were out to get him even before he was elected in 2016.
  
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  April 4, 2024 1:36pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtjQI660Xz8
Trump Proclaims Christian Visibility Day.
Donald Trump is making headlines in his response to Joe Biden’s proclamation of “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Easter Sunday. He’ll replace it with Christian Visibility Day.
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April 4, 2024 10:44am
- MCōs
  
  President Biden did no such thing.
  It’s been on the books since 2009
  
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  April 4, 2024 2:08pm
  - sungsamning
    
    True. However, he felt the need to do it all over again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezMSjq7lJo
    
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    April 4, 2024 6:31pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA1lx4nDuPA
Zuckerbucks Banned in Wisconsin.
There has been aa vote in this state. Private entities are not allowed to pay for drop boxes.
Hopefully this will be copied in other states.
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April 4, 2024 10:45am
Jack5

C’mon Melissa, the Woke stragglers are re-forming in the hills as partisans …

Taxpayers are still financing Left wing and Maori activist propaganda.

When will Melissa Lee, the Minister of Media Communications, stop the tens of millions of taxpayer money going into the Left-wing, Woke news media? She told us what she’d like to do in a Kiwiblog article a year or two ago. But so far, what action from the Minister?

Meanwhile, State-financed Woke propaganda still pours out.

For example, at the Radio NZ web site, in an article acknowledging its State funding, ~~Joanna~~ Mihingarangi Forbes features Scott Hamilton.

Yep, Scott Hamilton, the Leftist history revisionist who entertained us here on Kiwiblog with tales of debauched White pirates, of slave raiders, and of historic discrimination against Maori people, and even of religious discrimination in burial of colonial soldiers.

Discrimination devils buzz in Scott’s brain, but he was interesting about the Maori mini-genocide of Chatham Islands Moriori.

A nastier side showed with his hammering of a tourist-town small business over its name, the same as that of a White pirate. I think it had the guts to ignore his fuss.

Wikipedia says of pale-skinned, part-Maori Feilding lass Joanna Mary Forbes, that she was born in “1972 or 1973,” but changed her name to Mihingarangi after an “immersion experience” while studying Maori at a polytechnic. Maori activism has aspects of a cult.

The Joanna-to-Mihingarangi saga:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihingarangi_Forbes

Scott Hamilton at Radio NZ with taxpayer help:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/mata-with-mihingarangi-forbes/story/2018928770/mata-season-2-episode-5-scott-hamilton-on-segregation-and-commentators-tina-wickliffe-and-shane-te-pou
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April 4, 2024 10:50am
- Yabster
  
  yeah Scott Hamilton who tried to get a cafe Bully Hayes renamed- its still the same name, what a woke plonker- sure him and Forbes would get o like a house on fire.
  
  Don’t hold your breath re Melissa Lee- emailed her on the subject and to her or her staffs credit I got a reply:
  
  Dear …,
  
  Thank you for your email of 23 February regarding TVNZ. It is always useful to hear the views of the public on the performance of our media, and I appreciate you taking the time to write and share your concerns.
  
  As I hope you will appreciate, it is not appropriate for Ministers to intervene in the decisions of media companies about operational matters, including content and programming. These decisions are made independently of government. This is to ensure freedom of the media in New Zealand and follows the well-established principle that Government should not determine or influence what New Zealanders can access in the media. Section 28 of the TVNZ Act 2003 prevents Ministers from giving direction to TVNZ regarding any programme or other content or to the gathering or presentation of news or the preparation or presentation of any current affairs programme or content.
  
  I am aware that New Zealand’s regulatory system for media content is currently fragmented and in need of modernisation. For example, the Broadcasting Act 1989, part of the suite of legislation which forms the current regulatory system, was created before widespread use of the internet and is understandably showing its age. Inconsistent classification and standards across platforms can create confusion for consumers and inequality for the industry. In order to ensure the regulatory system for our media is fit for purpose for all New Zealanders, officials at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage have preliminary work underway to modernise and streamline the system.
  
  You may wish to look out for future opportunities for the public to feed into this work programme as it progresses.
  
  Thank you again for writing, and I wish you all the best.
  
  Kind Regards
  
  Office of Hon Melissa Lee
  
  Minister for Economic Development | Minister for Ethnic Communities | Minister for Media and Communications
  
  Associate Minister for ACC
  
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  April 4, 2024 12:43pm
Hugh Jarse

I hope all the little Jemima’s and Tristan’s striking on the 9th of April for climate change renounce school trips to overseas destinations as part of their studies and stop their Mummies and Daddies from taking them overseas for holidays, driving them to school and start walking or biking there.
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April 4, 2024 11:16am
- peterwn
  
  They learn from an early stage that these changes to lifestyle are for ‘other people’ to adopt and that privileged brats are above that nonsense.
  
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  April 4, 2024 11:45am
- cmm
  
  Don’t worry, they will all go out and plant a seedling (which they will forget to water and will dies). That should offset years of flights to Europe.
  
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  April 4, 2024 12:50pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

They caught him stealing mailboxes, full ones.

Lefties, go to your safe places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBLP5884VH8
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April 4, 2024 11:17am
Maggie Pie

GAY PRIDE ….or something to be ashamed of?

The devastating story about the effects on friends and family of UKTV Phillip Schofield’s fall from grace, following his daliances with a young man 🙁

https://trib.al/W3Afa7a
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April 4, 2024 11:48am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, seems to run in the family.
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2023/04/phillip-schofield-says-he-has-no-brother-after-timothy-schofield-found-guilty-of-sexual-abuse.html
  
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  April 4, 2024 12:43pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    OMG! Wonder if it’s catching?
    
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    April 4, 2024 2:09pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

History curriculum ‘flawed and divisive view’ of NZ’s past – ACT.

Erica Stanford talks about the content.
Willie Jacksin:
“There’s no balance at all, it’s been imbalanced for all my life… let’s prioritise indigenous people to start off with.”
Why prioritise Willie? Surely that is Racist? It is Willie who is a load of nonsense.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/this-is-concerning-history-curriculum-flawed-and-divisive-view-of-nz-s-past-act/ar-BB1l1ZgI
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April 4, 2024 1:33pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  let’s prioritise indigenous people to start off with.”
  
  Someone just needs to ask Willie – WHY?
  
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  April 4, 2024 2:05pm
- greybeard
  
  Is “Willie Jackson” an ancient maori name?
  Maybe one of those canoes bringing the maori immigrants to New Zealand ( so they could become “indigenous” ) was “The Jackson Flyer”.
  Or “Willie’s Waverider”.
  
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  April 4, 2024 2:58pm
  - Keith White
    
    Free Willy?
    
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    April 4, 2024 6:26pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

No Māori wards for councils without referendum.

It would be a good idea to watch PM Chris Luxon on this considering hid views on co-governance. Luxon mentions ‘repealed’ on co-governance. Not good enough.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/no-m%C4%81ori-wards-for-councils-without-referendum-local-government-minister/ar-BB1l2efn
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April 4, 2024 1:39pm
- thirteenstars
  
  From ACT’s email which came out today:
  
  The legislation the Government is introducing will mean councils that have established Māori wards since 2020 without a referendum can disestablish them. If they don’t do this, citizens will be able to vote on them at the next local body election in 2025.
  
  And as laid out in ACT’s coalition agreement with National, at least five per cent of voters will be able to require a local referendum on the establishment of a Māori ward on an ongoing basis.
  
  On 1 News last week, Maiki Sherman tried to claim ACT wouldn’t get our way on this issue. But she was caught out by not checking her sources – a good lesson for someone recently promoted to political editor.
  
  Ouch, and excellent, but mainly ouch.
  
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  April 4, 2024 5:48pm
Maggie Pie

It’s starting 🙁

Aljaz banner reporting… MASSIVE explosion at a major arms depot in Iran.
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April 4, 2024 2:07pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, Mossad never sleep. Well Oct 7th maybe excluded.
  
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  April 4, 2024 3:30pm
- miltonF
  
  More Israeli terrorism would be my guess.
  
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  April 4, 2024 3:53pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    So you support Iran.
    A theocratic regime which seizes young women off the street for not covering their head, tortures them, rapes the and when they die throws them into an unmarked grave.
    Good to know.
    I guess we add Misogynist to your Tag of Anti Semite Bigot.
    Did you get a thrill when Oct 7 happened?
    
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    April 4, 2024 9:06pm
- rangitoto
  
  Balochs are revolting.
  
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  April 4, 2024 4:23pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    A Sunni day in Rask
    
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    April 4, 2024 5:15pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The Tariff Man.
How much will Trump’s new tariff schemes cost Americans?
This is by Zeleb, an outfit/person with serious TDS.
It will cost Americans nothing if they don’t buy, which opens the door for new or more ‘made in the USA’ products. Lefties just don’t get it.
Remember, Trump is a businessman, not an arse kissing Politician!

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/how-much-will-trump-s-new-tariff-schemes-cost-americans/ss-BB1kW8pR?
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April 4, 2024 3:08pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  MCos was on about this the other day.
  The customer will pay. NO! The customer will not pay if the product is too expensive – which opens the door for ‘made in USA.’ Creates business and employment, or the customer may pay for quality not shall we say ‘Chinese shit!’
  
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  April 4, 2024 3:18pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    No, Steve, you’ve got it backwards. The consumer will suffer because they are forced to pay either the tariffed (inflated) price or buy from another source that will be equally expensive, which it must be or the tariff would not imposed, the proceeds of the tariff going directly into government coffers to be wasted on the latest boondoggle.
    
    It’s not up to the state to either penalise a producer or run a protection racket for a producer, the result of either is to force me to pay more.
    
    And it sure as hell isn’t up to you or the state to tell me what’s shit and what’s not. Careful lest you find your own choices circumscribed by inflated prices and the quality control experts at the Ministry of Shit Detection.
    
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    April 4, 2024 5:57pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      No. If the cheap market price is there the buyer will pay.
      With a 100% tariff (which is what Trump says on cars) they will not buy and chose American manufactured.
      This happened after 2016 and the corrupt Democrats did not like the car industry booming again.
      I have not got it backwards, but I do see some points.
      We will see in 2025.
      
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      April 4, 2024 6:50pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “No. If the cheap market price is there the buyer will pay.”
        
        There is no cheap “market price” if the state imposes a tariff. There is only an inflated price. Market price means price that is charged without state manipulation. A tariff is manipulation.
        
        “With a 100% tariff (which is what Trump says on cars) they will not buy and chose American manufactured.”
        
        Again, it is not the role of the state to tell me what I can buy. Do you think it is? If the state forces me to pay an inflated price for a product to the extent that I must buy another product that I would not buy if I had the choice, you have imposed force upon me. You have stood between me and the supplier. You have said, thou shalt not. You have impoverished me and enriched the state with the tariff I am forced to pay and enriched the producer who produces the same product for a much higher price.
        
        It is wrong to apply such force. It makes all of use poorer and more subject to the power of the state.
        
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        April 4, 2024 8:09pm
Maggie Pie

“We need more politicians like Shane Jones”

WATCH: Mikes Minute

https://youtu.be/8FMsdq4x3gw

My partner’s mum just sent this link.
And not so much for what Hosk has to say…. but Ma reckons Mike has had a Malarplasty.
She thort he looks a bit like Simon Cowell.
Ma would know of course, having been thru multiple procedures herself 😎
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April 4, 2024 3:23pm
- Inandout
  
  Mike is coming up 60 and has always been a health fanatic, swallowing those vitamins he advertises on ZB. Like his wife, Mike may have visited a Dr Feelgood somewhere in Remmers.
  
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  April 4, 2024 3:29pm
Chuck Bird

Kellie-Jay Keen on SNP’s hate laws – could Scotland lock up Terfs like me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5rFBZ6i1U
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April 4, 2024 3:39pm
Ghost

Hmmm

The Suicide Prevention Office at the Ministry of Health could close if a proposal to axe more than 100 jobs goes ahead, a union says.

Article

I’m just not sure we need a seperate entity to deal with suicide

The Government has officially opened the country’s first-ever Suicide Prevention Office and has also announced an extra $12 million in funding for Māori and Pacific suicide prevention.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the office was a critical part of the Wellbeing Budget and an important priority for her Government.

Article

Btw, if you wanted to visit their website, I’m not sure many would be able to remember it https://www.hekapehuwhetu.govt.nz/

If that department has been up and running since 2019, there is bugger all information on their website. I’m not sure what they have been doing for the last few years.
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April 4, 2024 3:44pm
- greybeard
  
  Of course you know what they have been doing for the last few years: morning and afternoon teas, long lunches, meetings, seminars, training courses, maori language courses, even more maori language courses, training camps, self-development weekends at luxurious locations, and regular generous salary increases.
  In other words, exactly the same things the other zillion Government Departments have been doing for years.
  
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  April 4, 2024 4:26pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Oh, they were also waiting for knock off time so they could grab a craft beer shandy before having a rest on the train home.
    
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    April 4, 2024 6:54pm
sirknz

Is this equity? The Women’s basketball league are paying their players more than the men.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350234311/newsable-nz-womens-basketball-league-wages-double-now-more-men

I am picking that the league will fall over in the next few years citing unspecified cost blowouts and crowds shrinking.
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April 4, 2024 4:06pm
- MCōs
  
  Shock Horror
  
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  April 4, 2024 7:34pm
Jack5

Does NZ have a blind spot instead of somewhere where change of names can be checked?

How else could a person like this become a lawyer after torturing the genitals of a three-year-old boy?

After the final Bain trial it was found that a jury member had a criminal record.

Child torturer became lawyer:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/struck-off-lawyer-alwyn-oconnor-refused-appeal-to-fight-ill-treatment-of-child-conviction/PC4VKPMQEBF75ET7LNVRFAPZXM/
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April 4, 2024 5:02pm
- Ghost
  
  What a sick bastard
  
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  April 4, 2024 5:05pm
Inandout

Horizons Regional has $300,000 to give away on these projects and then ratepayers wonder why their fees increase annually. Immersed in Maori also.
https://www.horizons.govt.nz/news/horizons-regional-council-community-grants-open-so
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April 4, 2024 5:24pm
Ghost

Have to admit this guys answer was priceless

What century are we in? Earth

DUMB NPCS CANNOT Answer EXTREMELY Simple Questions!
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April 4, 2024 5:37pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Disturbing if it’s not just fake clickbait!
  
  Would be interesting to know what Uni that was and what degree each person was doing. I’m thinking not STEM degrees.
  
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  April 5, 2024 1:32am
MCōs

I wasn’t aware PM Luxon was making a bit of a splash on TikTok
Suprising for the obvious reason, but also I thought TikTok was non gratis in government departments? https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350233931/verity-johnson-i-cant-stand-christopher-luxons-tiktok
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April 4, 2024 5:43pm
Chris Nisbet

I’m sure that One News told us that Ukraine were only a few months away from winning the war when the war was only a few months old.
Now they’re talking about what Trump’s going to do about funding Ukraine if/when he gets voted back in.
Lol.
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April 4, 2024 6:17pm
Albie

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed that when they do the weather on the tv news the temperatures are always consistent with the regions and the time of year?
Spews First tonight even reported a lower than average March temp across the country!
Surely it’s only a matter of time before the facts put to bed this engineered climate hysteria?
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April 4, 2024 6:38pm
- MCōs
  
  I somehow doubt that a lower than average March temp across NZ has a huge effect world wide
  Could be wrong, but whatever the situation what I think doesn’t mean a bag of beans. The tide will still come in and two plus two still equals four
  
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  April 4, 2024 7:27pm
  - MCōs
    
    Here’s something to chew over
    https://wmo.int/media/update/global-seasonal-climate-update-march-april-may-2024
    
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    April 4, 2024 7:33pm
Ghost

Wait, what. You could make the saving by reducing some salaries, but decided to cut 134 roles. Ummm, does that mean your executive salaries equals what those 134 people earned? Damn

The Ministry of Health is proposing to axe 134 roles in its change proposal, after a directive from the Government. Reporter Azaria Howell reveals what staff have been told and how they learned their fate.Leaked internal documents reveal the Ministry of Health considered trimming executive salaries but instead chose to cut more than a hundred roles to cut costs.The ministry was directed to identify 6.5 per cent savings, with the final sign-off and confirmation to be made by the Public Service and Finance Minister Nicola Willis ahead of Budget Day, May 30.

Paywalled article
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April 4, 2024 10:26pm

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