General Debate 03 May 2024

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artemisia

Reasonable points raised by some submitters to the Fast Track Select Committee. Maybe there will be some tweaks. But the coalition government needs to make sure it remains fast track, and not slightly-less-slow track. We have had creeping controls / red tape / regulations for years, to the point some are no longer bothering. And don’t even start me on taniwha and koha and mana and snails.

Time to get on with growing the pie. Yes there will be some downsides and problems along the way, anticipated or not, but will they in aggregate be worse than doing very little very slowly? And problems once identified, rather than lost in the red tape morass, might find solutions.
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May 3, 2024 8:06am
- Debsta
  
  Well said art!
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:18am
mikenmildagain

RIP Richard Tandy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMb-9jCZkeU
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May 3, 2024 8:06am
imalwaysright

Listened to Craig Stobo talking to Michael Laws on the Platform yesterday .

Apparently Genesis and Meridian have paid $180 million to DOC and hapu to fast track RMA renewal for Waitaki dam.

There are no goods or services supplied for this money.

That’s 180 briefcases full of cash.

Pure corruption .
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May 3, 2024 8:17am
- ecco
  
  Iwi leaders at the trough again. Doesn’t even get to their people, a number of who are failing abysmally at life. I’m pretty sure all the ram raiders have the same racial profile.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:24am
- thirteenstars
  
  According to Stobo, the $180 million is to “smooth” the way forward. To make sure DOC and Maori won’t cause too much trouble through objections when the generation facilities are re-consented.
  
  It’s a scandal but it will go unreported by a media who think such payments are justifiable recompense to tangata whenua for the evils of colonisation.
  
  Don’t fool yourselves, NZ, that’s corruption of the lowest order on a massive scale. Your culture and your country are being raped right before your eyes.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:54am
  - imalwaysright
    
    How can DOC accept a large sum of money from two major essential infrastructure companies for what is clearly a rubber stamp to the RMA application.
    
    The inference then is, if the money was not paid, would DOC have found grounds to object?
    
    Are DOC ignoring regulations in return for money?
    
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    May 3, 2024 12:17pm
  - wsk12345
    
    And people wonder at the cost of living crisis. The iwi are getting g a cut of every value chain in this country – power, water, bloody Ironman, everyone running a business on Lake Taupo. It’s endless and yet none of it goes to help their people with anger management or mental health issues, poverty or criminality.
    
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    May 3, 2024 12:56pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Money that is ultimately extracted from NZ public to feed the these privileged aristocrats.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:58am
- imalwaysright
  
  Update
  
  Ngai Tahu got $100,000,000.
  
  They are also trying to establish a governing body to enable them to “manage” the entire Waitaki river.
  If they are successful, that means the three dams on the river are probably going to have to pay Ngai Tahu for the water.
  The $100 million may just be the downpayment.
  
  Our assets are being stolen.
  
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  May 3, 2024 11:50am
- wsk12345
  
  Re was an article in NZCPR. Doc got about $1.5 m from memory, the rest was the bro’s.
  
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  May 3, 2024 12:54pm
- Burtland
  
  https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/craig-stobo-on-nzs-decline-in-the-corruption-perceptions-index
  
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  May 3, 2024 2:15pm
- Burtland
  
  https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/law-regulation/gentailers-spend-180m-smoothing-waitaki-consent-path
  
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  May 3, 2024 2:27pm
Anthony Melchett

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/public-sector-cuts-over-800-jobs-to-go-at-kainga-ora-ministry-of-education-nzqa-stats-nz-housing-and-urban-development/

Great, keep them coming.

Biased media rush straight to Fleur Fitzsimons for a negative comment. It’s fair to say that if she doesn’t like what’s going on then it’s a really good idea.

Surely they could find someone better than her for comment? A failed politician so morally corrupt and lacking in respect for her own child she was prepared to use her as a pawn in her quest to prove her ideological superiority.

There is nothing more satisfying than watching unproductive grifters get turfed out of a taxpayer funded trough and the elites that put them there screaming about it realizing that once the minions are gone, they will be too.
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May 3, 2024 8:17am
Maggie Pie

‘X’ bestie Gilda K. has always been my fave ‘Real-Housewife-of-Auckland’ 😀

https://twitter.com/Strange_G/status/1785765499839860765
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May 3, 2024 8:19am
- kowtow
  
  How can that chanting be ‘tolerated” .It is incitement to violence, genocidal even.
  
  The scary thing too is how the students ( unless as in the US there are infiltrators/agitators.) join in the baying for blood.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:49am
- lastmanstanding
  
  On the irony!!! Unless those morons protesting at the Unis are both adherents to the Islam faith and straight those they are supporting would kill them on sight.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:14am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Start a Revolution?
  They can’t even start a bloody lawnmower.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:17am
Lenticular

The foolish House Republicans in the USA can’t get cops to stop mob violence, etc, so they just passed the USA’s first federal hate speech law.

It’s against antisemitism, using the ludicrously broad and vaguely defined definition pushed by the IHRA, which is broad enough to ban the New Testament.

My personal sentiments are same as those of Allie Beth Stuckey in this article:
https://notthebee.com/article/house-passes-antisemitism-awareness-act-and-people-are-a-little-suspicious-that-it-might-destroy-the-first-amendment

To which I’d add: Jews, if you’re appalled at the antisemitism on the left, maybe you should think twice before alienating the entire hate-speech-law-rejecting Right and conservative Christians. I really despise this kind of thing. It’s an assault on my faith and it really is spearheaded by your people.
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May 3, 2024 8:19am
- thirteenstars
  
  Hmm, well, live by the sword, die by the sword. The bible was certainly wielded for many a century against those who defied its dogma.
  
  Further, the law is not a blanket hate speech law. It regulates speech on college campuses.
  
  That said, it’s not only wrong but unnecessary and I find myself agreeing with the ACLU:
  
  https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-condemns-house-passage-of-dangerous-bill-that-would-chill-free-speech
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:04am
  - Lenticular
    
    The bit of the Bible that would be most likely to be targeted by wokes (and yes, Jews), the New Testament, is the root of our civilisation and the 1A (as per Madison in his letter to Schseffer).
    
    It’s absolutely astounding how you can see that it’s a bad law with potential for abuse, but if it’s Christianity that is targeted, well, hey, you’ll turn a blind eye.
    
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    May 3, 2024 10:48am
    - thirteenstars
      
      Christianity isn’t being targeted at all. Calm down.
      
      If it’s a bad law any objection to it applies equally which includes Christianity and any other dogma you care to name.
      
      Root of our civilisation? Rubbish. The Greeks, the Romans, and not a few Angles and Saxons might disagree. It’s only when we shook off religion’s rigid control of law, government and culture that we evolved into the modern liberal democracy you enjoy today.
      
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      May 3, 2024 11:46am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        I used to think that, but not any more.
        
        Tom Holland agrees in Dominion where he argues that Western morality, values and social norms ultimately are products of Christianity – including even things that are supposedly anti-Christian, like secularism, revolution and Marxism.
        
        I have to finish In The Shadow Of The Sword before I get to this one.
        
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        May 3, 2024 3:14pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “he argues that Western morality, values and social norms ultimately are products of Christianity”
        
        The phrase “root of our civilisation” was used and it’s patently incorrect. Christianity inherited the structure of Roman civilisation, the Greek connection an intimate part of that. Hell, it was Aquinas that attempted to reconcile classical Greek thought with the dogma of his own church. Nice try. The Renaissance and the Enlightenment weren’t products of Christian dogma but of a rediscovery of classical art and rationality.
        
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        May 3, 2024 3:49pm
      - Lenticular
        
        The Enlightenment was a cover band that stole all of the Reformation’s greatest hits.
        
        Ever looked at Luther’s On Civil Government? It’s got a fully fleshed out formulation of government being limited to life and liberty. Locke gets all the credit and it’s totally unjustified – Madison even said he got the 1A from Luther’s thought. [In fairness, you can’t get it from his practice].
        Luther saw it as a natural outworking of the nonviolence of the NT combined with Christ’s Render unto Caesar…
        
        I can live with a ‘two roots’ formulation of Western civilisation, btw. You still hate half your civilisation’s roots….
        
        As for this law, are you mad? What hate speech law is ever enforced except against conservatives and Christians? And yes, there absolutely is a really common accusation made by Jews that the NT is antisemitic, period, and a guiding example given by the IHRF is that any reference to Jews killing Jesus is antisemitic, period.
        
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        May 3, 2024 4:40pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “In fairness, you can’t get it from his practice”
        
        No kidding? The Nazis certainly seemed to take a lot of inspiration from his thought. Ever read “On the Jews and Their Lies” by Luther? That’s the blueprint for the Holocaust right there if you happen to be inclined towards hysterical goose-stepping and snappy tailoring. Where do you think Luther got these ideas from? Aristotle? Guess again.
        
        The Enlightenment was a recapitulation of ideas 2,000 years before, not merely those of a few centuries previous, and that in the service of an internecine religious battle for control of millions of people, ideas to which Luther was antithetical.
        
        My God, Europe was ripped asunder in the battle between competing views of the same damn dogma. It was the Enlightenment that finally freed mankind and brought forth the Age of Discovery, the industrial revolution and the market economy.
        
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        May 3, 2024 6:30pm
- Matt Long
  
  As far as hate speech laws to do with antisemitism, it may not be a false flag operation, but it’s certainly not letting a crisis go to waste.
  
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  May 3, 2024 1:10pm
artemisia

Notable that so many public service departments are counting vacancies in their cost reduction numbers. On the face of it that looks disingenuous and could do with some investigation. First, why so many vacancies? Are they real, or kept on the books for some reason. Maybe because better spend the taxpayer funding before god forbid we end up with an underspend and a funding cut. Secondly, cancelling vacancies is nowhere near the same as making roles redundant. Which is what redundancies are supposed to be. Not making people redundant. So are these cancelled roles actually redundant? Or is there some quiet shuffling going on.

Answer – yes of course but are Ministers and taxpayers being informed just what roles / functions are being canned or reduced. And not talking here about the PSA doing their best to cherry pick.

I guess the initial % cuts dust is still to settle but the line by line examination will be well underway and the Budget this month will hopefully tell us much more.
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May 3, 2024 8:23am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  What do you mean by ‘line by line examination’?
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:26am
  - softail 1450
    
    M&M’s question when it’s obvious he hasn’t bothered to read Artemisia’s post completely or the question wouldn’t be necessary.
    
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    May 3, 2024 8:38am
  - Lenticular
    
    Any reference to ‘line by line examination’ means close scrutiny and cost itemisation pertaining to budgets, financial statements, and job costings.
    This is a long established term in both business and politics and needs no explanation for most people.
    
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    May 3, 2024 8:42am
    - RoboRob
      
      People in government departments (like Mike?) under a Labour government aren’t familiar with concepts such as budgetting or book keeping. If you run out of money you just go to the finance minister and he gives you more.
      
      If the finance minister runs out of money he just goes to his banker mates and they give (loan) him some more.
      
      Labour economics 101
      
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      May 3, 2024 9:32am
      - Lenticular
        
        Money printer go brrr
        
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        May 3, 2024 10:49am
  - rouppe
    
    What he means is that CEO’s should be being much more surgical in their reductions. At the moment, they’re doing voluntary redundancy, which is lazy and poor management.
    
    Take my department. Over the last 6 months of last year they hired a good 50 managers. Different names, but essentially managers. They justified continuing with the hiring by saying that “it was Treasury funded”, ie not coming out of existing budget. That finally ground to a halt in late December.
    
    Since then, about 15 technical engineering staff have been let go. Not one manager. Not one “deputy” or “assistant” or “people leader”. Just engineers.
    
    It’s the same in every department. Voluntary redundancy first.
    
    what the CEO ought to be doing is examining their department core purpose. Keep people that contribute directly to that. Trim the communications people, the iwi/LGB/whatever liaison people, the layers upon layers of managers. That’s the line by line, role by role, focus on the core purpose examination that should be occurring.
    
    But it’s not.
    
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    May 3, 2024 8:55am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I don’t disagree with you. However much more is required.
      
      The CE can lift efficiency by looking at inputs.
      
      Ministers should be reviewing outputs, or programmes. I guarantee that there are dozens of useless programmes buried in the Ministry of Education that could go. I would be happy to be commissioned to uncover them at a heavily discounted fee. 😀 I’m only half joking. The Ministry of Education cannot review the Ministry of Education.
      
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      May 3, 2024 9:37am
      - Handyman
        
        Quite right. Form follows function.
        Start by clarifying the legislated functions of the department (not what they are doing).
        Add in the government’s KPIs.
        Whatever is left over can go. Entirely.
        Change the structure to clearly identify responsibilities for delivery. Somehow (I don’t know how to do this in the civil service) create consequences for incompetence (as opposed to not meeting KPIs).
        
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        May 3, 2024 10:23am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Somehow (I don’t know how to do this in the civil service) create consequences for incompetence…”
        
        Things have changed. A few years ago I talked to an old school guy who worked in the Treasury from the 1980s through to about 2010. He told me that their salary had a significant ‘at risk’ element based on performance. IIRC it was about 30 percent. All employees were on individual employment contracts.
        
        The tools do exist to deal with under-performing public servants. They are just not used. What often happens is that a unit is under performing so they bring in a contractor to work along side them to get the job done. Of course what should happen is that the under performing manager should be out the door and the contractor comes in to fix things and to help recruit new, competent folk. It has just been ‘sweep the dirt under the carpet’.
        
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        May 3, 2024 10:44am
      - rouppe
        
        That too…
        
        WRT the MoE, when Erica Stanford announced that education was going to go (back to) learning reading by utilizing phonics what I found astonishing was someone saying “wow, slow down, there’s more than one way to teach reading”.
        
        Really? So why didn’t you try them when reading scores were going through the floor?
        
        I learned reading through phonics. You probably did too, Benedict. So why is there outright hostility to it?
        
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        May 3, 2024 9:16pm
    - Sacha
      
      Those that can, do.
      The engineers know that they can get another job. They have something to offer an employer.
      Managers are two a penny – they are the people who can’t ‘do’.
      Hence the mess our public service is in.
      
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      May 3, 2024 11:50am
      - artemisia
        
        Actually, the worst managers are actually those that used to ‘do’, now a supervisor (or ‘manager’ these days regardless), find it much easier to keep busy af in the ‘do’ weeds and hope nobody notices they have no idea how to manage.
        
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        May 3, 2024 1:09pm
      - rouppe
        
        No one is hiring contractors at the moment.
        
        Because consultants pooped the nest, and contractors are an easy witch to burn.
        
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        May 3, 2024 9:20pm
- rouppe
  
  Because when you count vacant roles, the percentage cut looks bigger than the actual cuts to actual people in actual jobs.
  
  Most of the ones I looked like, the actual people in actual roles was about half the advertised cut
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:45am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    It doesn’t matter.
    
    I have said repeatedly that across the board cuts were stupid. But that aside the savings are real because the baseline appropriations will be reduced by 6.5 or 7.5 percent.
    
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    May 3, 2024 9:29am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I think you are worrying about nothing. The appropriations will be cut by 6.5 or 7.5 percent. The savings are real. There is no “line by line” examination. You will learn no more in the Budget.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:47am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Line by line examination might have been an element in budget scrutiny before 1989.
    
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    May 3, 2024 9:20am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      No it was in effect in 2008 under John Key. I authored one for a major government agency.
      
      The government should have taken the cuts out of the hands of the public servants. It is a lazy approach. I can only hope that over the next two years they review important areas of government spending.
      
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      May 3, 2024 9:32am
      - RoboRob
        
        I sincerely hope that after these ’emergency cuts’ they begin a department by department analysis and do real restructuring. There are a decent number of departments that just dont need to exist at all. In other departments they are top heavy with managers and comms people. There are still very significant savings that can be made.
        
        There are ministries of culture, ethnicity, PI affairs, Maori affairs, Children, human rights etc that could all disappear without making a jot of difference (apart to the governments spending).
        
        Then there are questions such as why we have NIWA and Metservice and why they actively compete with each other (and have duplicate computing resources) on the forecasting front.
        
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        May 3, 2024 9:39am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        We are talking about two different things with the same term, a common confusion in public finance.
        
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        May 3, 2024 9:54am
    - Anthony Melchett
      
      It still is in actual businesses that play with real money
      
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      May 3, 2024 9:45am
softail 1450

I saw a bizarre interview this morning on TV3 ,there was some National Woman named Erica being interviewed by the Chen chick who kept interrupting with “but there will be job cuts ,there are going to be job cuts”,this went on for some minutes with different questions being asked when I suddenly realised there was another participant in the discussion and strangely it was a human sized muted inanimate model of one of those dogs everyone used to have in the back parcel tray in their cars in the 70s with the nodding head ,even more bizarrely it had a name, Willie Jackson🤡🤡🤡.
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May 3, 2024 8:27am
- Steve Todd
  
  No doubt you felt rather chuffed with yourself after posting that one, softy.
  
  For goodness’ sake, why on earth would you engage in some sort of boorish putdown of a woman in public life – the Minister of Education, no less – whose name (Erica Stanford) you know full well, by referring to her as “some National Woman named Erica”? What were you trying to convey?
  
  And as for your description of Willie Jackson, presumably – I haven’t seen the interview – he was simply sitting there while the focus of the segment was on the Minister. Again, what was the point of so unnecessarily describing him in the way you did? To show us what a nasty, mean-spirited person you are? Apparently so.
  
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  May 3, 2024 3:09pm
Bridgenag

Good post by bad cattitude….

off the curve
is protest culture just a search for community by those who feel alienated?

“it snares the the “don’t quite belong here” or “not quite keeping up” parts of academia, the kids too awkward and weird to go to parties, the ones who got in on diversity and equity and whatever else and cannot hack engineering and get sucked into the “explorations of aggrievement through indigenous pottery department” and wind up radicalized not because they are radicals or wanted to be, but because it was the low energy path to feeling some sort of purpose and unity in a university environment that was simply too much for them. it sucks in rich kids furious at their own privilege and ready to stick it to mom and dad and their whole worldview.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/off-the-curve?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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May 3, 2024 8:28am
- artemisia
  
  I felt like that wrt the Springbok tour protests. Lots of people I knew took part and were seriously committed to the cause. Then suddenly the protests were over and only John Minto was left standing for the cause.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:34am
  - kowtow
    
    I wonder did their “commitment to the cause” include being comfortable with creating what anyone with two functioning brain cells knew would be a failed, kleptocratic state.
    
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    May 3, 2024 8:52am
  - Jethrod
    
    So in the end it was all pointless, a reasonably run country just went down the gurgler and what have we heard from Mr Minto since ….. pardon, I can’t hear.!
    I believe he has the same aim here.
    
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    May 3, 2024 10:28am
    - MCōs
      
      Reasonable run?
      
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      May 3, 2024 1:25pm
- Lenticular
  
  Totally true. There’s also the thing of “I borrowed 50k for education while you went plumbing, if you still earn more than me then at least I should shape morals and laws as compensation.”, as well as simple impostor syndrome.
  
  May I suggest, though, that this substacker learn to use capital letters if he wants to criticise educational degeneration?
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:34am
- I remember when
  
  Is one of the real reasons for the Palestinian protests that the young are getting back into debate?
  Even if universities consistently restrict the subjects that can be debated
  Also the “covid” protests reminded everyone about what it is possible to achieve and the need to declare your view.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:00am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Does this apply equally to the assortment of riffraff who felt they had a right to camp at parliament?
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:31am
  - Lenticular
    
    That’s an interesting question, Mike. How did you feel about the legitimacy of that protest re: a small element of that protest threatening violence, executions, etc? IIRC you said that delegitimised them all, right?
    
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    May 3, 2024 9:39am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      There is always a ‘small element’ disrupting a protest of which one approves and an ‘entire crowd’ protesting against a cause one supports.
      
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      May 3, 2024 9:57am
      - Lenticular
        
        Ooh ooh great, you’re committing to a principle!
        
        So, do you acknowledge that the anti mandate Parliament protest was legitimate? Did you at the time? Are you a big hypocrite, Mike?
        
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        May 3, 2024 10:51am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        It crossed well over several points from reasonable to disgustingly feral.
        
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        May 3, 2024 10:59am
      - Lenticular
        
        As opposed to the pro-Palestinian protestors with leaders openly talking about killing Jews on TV, chanting Death to America, assaulting Jews including university faculty?
        That’s not feral in your book, right?
        Or maybe just a little feral?
        And the involvement of the protest leaders in all these things – insignificant?
        
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        May 3, 2024 4:45pm
  - softail 1450
    
    M&M ,what’s wrong with hanging around parliament achieving nothing ? consecutive governments have been doing just that for many decades.
    At least the protesters built their tents and probably more of them than Dame Ardern and Robbo built houses in 6 years of their camping out at parliament doing SFA.
    
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    May 3, 2024 12:49pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Princess Charlotte turns 9 today. Isn’t she the spitting image of her father? Hopefully no future hair problems!

Happy birthday, Princess.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2024/05/princess-charlotte-turns-9-kate-middleton-releases-new-picture-of-daughter-for-birthday.html
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May 3, 2024 8:32am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Nine already? Only a few years before the paparazzi can stalk her and her friends.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:32am
  - softail 1450
    
    M&M ,unfortunately she’s fast approaching that age where they’ll have to keep a close eye on what prince Andrew’s up to 🤚🤚
    
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    May 3, 2024 12:52pm
Bridgenag

Columbia University calls upon NYPD to clear pro-Palestinian protestors from an occupied building, as adversarial leftist protests return to American campuses
The events reflect the decaying alliance between activists and university administrators, and portend an important shift in leftist dynamics both on and off campus.

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/columbia-university-calls-upon-nypd?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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May 3, 2024 8:35am
- I remember when
  
  Perhaps the protests have to start as ‘adversarial leftist’ protests, students lean left.
  Hopefully this will lead to protests demanding freedom of speech and opinion.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:08am
  - Lenticular
    
    No such luck, they’re passing vaguely worded hate speech laws instead of enforcing standards of non-violent protest. The House passed one yesterday.
    
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    May 3, 2024 9:40am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Send Mallard over to help, he is only a few hours flight away.
  
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  May 3, 2024 2:08pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350265832/coalition-will-implode-next-election-say-former-government-ministers
Here is Tova’s latest anti-Luxon, anti-Coalition episode.
Where is Jessica these days ?
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May 3, 2024 8:35am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  ANZ
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:43am
- Gravelroad
  
  Yep, Tova the one trick pony just going round and round the same circus tent tirelessly looking for a new ring master.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:44am
- Souvlaki
  
  Interestingly ( but to be expected of course) ,is fact that EACH of the three ‘ experts’ profered by O’Brien were SERIOUSLY at odds with ‘mainstream’ thought in EACH of their respective parties…blowhards who liked the sound of their own flawed prognostications!
  Personally…I’d put money on the coalition surviving ….none of the 3 leaders seem prone to sepuku😂
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:50am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Finlayson, Roy and Henare – case of scrapping the barrel isn’t it?
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:57am
  - pdm
    
    70etc
    
    I thought exactly that.
    
    Headline described them as `Hard Right’.
    
    and then dopey Tova barrelled in – doubt my comment to enlighten Tova and Stuff will be published – another one bites the dust at Stuff.
    
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    May 3, 2024 9:17am
- peterwn
  
  Chris Finlayson ought to know better than make that sort of comment. I think Chris has been a bit bitter and twisted ever since his Electorate chair got heaved off the National Party Board by delegates some years ago.
  Causing the coalition to implode would be like turkeys voting for an early Christmas and the three coalition leaders are NOT turkeys. The only time that the coalition may implode is if Chris Luxon thinks he could win an election without NZF’s support. Alternatively Chris could keep an eye out for potential waka-hoppers to govern without NZF (Simon Bridges says that the Waka Hopper ACT would not work in such a case). In 1998 Jenny Shipley called Winston’s bluff and the coalition was at an end. She was able to grab a few NZF MP’s and a disenchanted Alliance MP (a morning tea invitation each Friday worked wonders) to have the numbers to continue governing.
  Anyway as things stand, the current coalition is operating in harmony and is most likely to continue that way. Winston has utterly surprised me the way he agreed to the coalition on reasonable terms and his performance to date.
  As a Minister of Foreign Affairs outside National he can say things that a National Minister could not as Aussie Bob Car has found out the hard way.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:57am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Blowing up the coalition cost national the 1999, election, but at least Shipley got to the top off the greasy pole for a short while.
    
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    May 3, 2024 9:37am
    - peterwn
      
      Jim Bolger, Bill Birch and other National Ministers had already cost National the 1999 election even before Jenny came along.
      
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      May 3, 2024 12:24pm
    - Bevan
      
      Hipkins certainly seemed to love his short time atop the greasy pole.
      
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      May 3, 2024 1:19pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Poor old Tova..
  So out of the loop with politics of the day, that she has to probe amongst her fossil collection.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:58am
- Libertarians are right
  
  I see she chucked in Little with them as well going on about how Winston should be stood down for Defamation.
  
  This is the same Andrew Little who accused a private citizen of corruption and got sued for defamation (because it clearly was) and was saved by a judge who made one of the worst mistakes in our legal history (by giving Little Qualified Privilege) and was saved from the Appeal by the death of the Plaintif. That Andrew Little?
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:19am
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION

Are both JAG and Russel Norman receiving the same meds?

https://twitter.com/RusselNorman/status/1786096848706625902

(Wonder if Russ ever got his Tibetan flag back 😀 )
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May 3, 2024 8:38am
- Lenticular
  
  Russell Norman was perfectly justified re: that flag.
  
  JAG is a whole different story, why not stick to laying into her?
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:45am
  - PurplePen
    
    The limit is still going to be 30 around schools, only just during and a bit pre and post school hours. No point in having the 30 limit 24 by 7.
    
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    May 3, 2024 11:54am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Stupid. If school children are crossing around schools the speed limit is still 40. If there are lots of kids I go slower than that.
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:51am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    30K in this case. Police cashing in.
    
    3 2
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    May 3, 2024 10:01am
- Souvlaki
  
  …..pharmac at fault?? Quality control lost in manufacture of cheap generic imports of meds from….wherever …….?
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:53am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Both mad as cut snakes…. the pair of them 🙁
  
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  May 3, 2024 8:57am
- pdm
  
  Red Russel the `wannabe pirate’.
  
  It is not often we hear from him these days which can only be a good thing.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:21am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Sometimes when people are quiet they are up to something.
    Carmel Sepuloni, Marama Davidson.
    
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    May 3, 2024 10:08am
O C Smith

Yet to see any MSM comment on the latest Roy Morgan poll.
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May 3, 2024 8:39am
- septic skeptic
  
  True – but that applies to the fifty previous as well.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:31am
  - Philview
    
    Strangely the RM poll was widely discussed last year when support for National crashed in one of their polls.
    
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    May 3, 2024 12:58pm
- NothingLeft
  
  https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/nz-national-voting-intention-april-2024
  
  “Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for April 2024 shows the new National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) with a majority of 53% (down 3% points from March) with a large lead over the Labour-Greens-Maori Party”
  
  “On an overall basis men are heavily in favour of the new National/ ACT/ NZ First coalition government on 63.5%, In contrast, women marginally favour the opposition Labour/ Greens/ Maori on 54%”
  
  What is wrong with NZ women?
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:03am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Their treatment by NZ men?
    
    1 15
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    May 3, 2024 11:01am
    - Bevan
      
      Yeah, like beaten wives they run back to their abuser. “I know they will change this time, Im sure Hipkins will build me a house and give it to me for free…”
      
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      May 3, 2024 1:22pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Their clear and catastrophic non-comprehension of basic economics, psychology, 20tha nd 21st century history etc. Their voting preferences are clearly driving towards a dismal, poor and repressive authoritarian future. Equality of misery and servitude to aristocratic masters for all!
      
      Can democracy survive the electoral dominance of single women in the age of social media’s virtue signalling excesses? Democracy is long-term stable when male preferences dominate the vote, but there’s no proof that’s true when women dominate.
      
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      May 3, 2024 3:12pm
  - Paulus
    
    Historically, something which we never dared to discuss, is that the women of New Zealand elect a Government and have done so for many years.
    In a report a short while ago the result of such was that of women over 50 years of age 53% would vote Labour and Ardern again.
    The division between men and women has never been so wide or will ever close again.
    Some of the bitterness results of this we see regularly now is astonishing, in that such after bad manners, as a minimum, as a result of poor education, would never be seen some 25 years ago.
    So they went to University – so what that makes no difference to their often misdemeanour, eh Tova and Genter.
    
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    May 3, 2024 1:26pm
Scott

I’m very pleased to see National is rolling out a structured literacy programme for reading. This aims to boost reading levels from 50% of students reaching the required reading standard to 80% by 2030.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/05/structured-literacy-government-to-roll-out-new-approach-to-reading-in-all-state-schools.amp.html

All schools will be required to implement this by the beginning of next year. This is a welcome development as the “whole language” approach has been a failure.
So our kids will learn to read. They are also now not distracted by phones. Two very good things and we should give the govt credit.
This is a big development and shows real leadership by the National government and minister of education Erica Stanford in particular.
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May 3, 2024 8:46am
- Notsofast
  
  It is an enduring tragedy that Trevor Mallard killed this stone dead in 2002 as education minister. An 8 member cross party group traveled the world, came back and said we need to teach the phonetics method immediately. Donna Awatere was a champion, but in the NZ way she got consumed by an irrelevant scandal.
  Trevor Mallard should be remembered only for this.
  Nobody seems to know.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:36am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    One of ACT’s many fads over the decades.
    
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    May 3, 2024 10:01am
- Paulus
  
  And watch carefully how the Education Department, the Teachers, and their Union treat it – some poor comments have already been made along with the mobile phone ban and the effect on the social sobriety of the young in New Zealand exacerbated by their peers, and the so called media.
  
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  May 3, 2024 1:30pm
greenfinger

Such a lame excuse from Swarbrick that she didn’t have the contact detail for the florist that was accosted by the Genter. Has Swarbrick never heard of Google? Hello? She should personally go to the shop to investigate! I would bet the farm Green Party would cite mental ealth issue (again) as excuse!
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May 3, 2024 8:49am
- cmm
  
  I remember Cindy using that excuse once too. She couldn’t talk to the Aussies about something because she didn’t have their number.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:45am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    That was when she had just become opposition leader. Chris Hipkins was caught trying to dig dirt on an Australian politician to help his Labor Party brothers in Australia.
    
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    May 3, 2024 1:50pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  I found the phone number in 10 seconds
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:02am
- Bevan
  
  And I take it our esteemed MSM pointed this out to Saint Chloe?
  
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  May 3, 2024 1:23pm
- NothingLeft
  
  I think the tried out the line with regard to Golriz’s 5 fingered discounts and didn’t get any push back on it, so have decided to use it as a stock response for the horrible behaviour of their MP’s towards members of the public.
  
  Being an entitled Karen/Green (but I repeat myself) means never having to apologise.
  
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  May 3, 2024 3:31pm
I remember when

Ioniq:
Zero down payment, zero interest and they pay the first 30,000 kms of RUC.

Sales booming?
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May 3, 2024 9:20am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Ioniq is ironic….
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:38am
- cmm
  
  30,000km of RUC is around $2300. Not much.
  
  Vdub were offering a $15k discount.
  
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  May 3, 2024 9:47am
- Sacha
  
  I’m thinking they just want to get them off the car lots. Then they’ll stop making them.
  Recently there was a warning to EV drivers that there was no opportunity to charge their batteries on the diversion route when SH1 was closed north of Seddon.
  I wonder if any were stranded?
  
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  May 3, 2024 12:02pm
ecco

Julie Ann Genter [ Mod : family stuff off limits on KB ]
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May 3, 2024 9:31am
Maggy Wassilieff

I’m glad the Property Division of the Min of Education is under review.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/independent-reviewers-appointed-school-property-inquiry

You’ve really got to wonder what the hell is going on when demolition workers are not informed that the old classrooms were chokka-full of Asbestos linings etc.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515836/we-weren-t-informed-apprentice-working-on-school-unaware-of-asbestos
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May 3, 2024 9:37am
- cmm
  
  The flip side to that argument is that any demolition workers should be able to look for signs of asbestos unaided. These were apprentices, but apprentices should be supervised by experienced workers.
  
  I doubt the bean counters in MoE would know about details like these.
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:17am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Sometimes MoE have paid contractors to “test” the buildings…
    
    They’ve either told the builders that there was no asbestos present or have failed to identify all the areas of concern.
    They had no choice but rely on the experts who told them there was no asbestos, Hunte and Crowe said.
    
    They had handed over all the documents they had – including around the removal or encapsulation of asbestos in two of the rooms in the eight-room block – back in 2016.
    
    Experienced Auckland firm Dowdell and Associates did the checks. Dowdell said in a short statement: “The June 2021 report states that no asbestos is present via the scope that was given for this survey.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/515612/school-s-struggle-with-asbestos-removal-it-s-destroyed-me
    
    Sometimes no testing has occurred:
    Sometimes “cowboys” have been contracted to do the demolition
    *The Ministry of Education does not keep a ‘black list’ of bad removalists
    *It has not estimated the extent of asbestos-related risk across schools
    *It has not identified the number of schools that require an asbestos survey or an asbestos management plan
    *It has not set up national panels of consultants and removalists, despite discussing it for a year.
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/514264/school-classrooms-contaminated-with-asbestos-after-linings-taken-off-without-testing
    
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    May 3, 2024 10:26am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Had new vinyl laid recently. Flooring people did not want to remove the old lino because of possible asbestos. They wanted to cover it with MDF.
  So I ripped it up myself and dumped it. Ground the floor flat and away the layers went.
  Asbestos is in the roof of my house. New roof a few years ago and the guys just put new batts over the asbestos. It is fine if you leave it alone.
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:17am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Apparently concrete dust is just as dangerous as asbestos.
    I know someone who worked his teen years in an asbestos mine in Cyprus.
    All shovel work and a bandana to keep some of the dust out.
    He’s now 93 and healthy.
    
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    May 3, 2024 11:34am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Any of that sort of dust is bad. Cutting ceramic tiles dry is another. Mother in law was a rockhound. Cutting and polishing stones. Some diamond saws used oil, dremmel type machines can be dusty depending on what you are cutting/grinding. Cinnabar is bad. It is the ore of mercury. The pink stone looks quite good when finished. Opal matrix is another that is often ground dry.
      
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      May 3, 2024 12:51pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Must have had one of the good bandanas
      
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      May 3, 2024 8:00pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  “The Ministerial Inquiry is separate to that review and is focussed on how a situation of having around 350 projects in various stages, from design through to pre-construction, where expectations far exceeded what could be delivered was able to occur.
  
  “Some were weeks away from starting, even though the funding available hadn’t been managed well enough to meet what schools understood had been approved,” Ms Stanford says.”
  
  ….
  
  What a mess. A suspect that MoE were used to going back to Grant Robertson:
  
  “Hey we have run out of money to build those new schools.” 🙁
  
  “No worries. How much do you need?” 🙂
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:34am
Maggie Pie

ANOTHER ‘MUST WATCH’ (2min 1 sec)

Nearly half-a-million views overnight.

“Why don’t the people see….”

https://twitter.com/jamiemcintyre21/status/1785854880181276966
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May 3, 2024 9:43am
- kowtow
  
  All true and very frightening .
  
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  May 3, 2024 11:40am
Libertarians are right

I see Andrew Little thinks Winston should be stood down because of his “defamation”.

The irony of course is that if Carr takes the case to court he’ll need a lot of monetary support (I wonder where he’ll get it from) because he’ll lose the first case and will need to appeal to a higher court.

The reason he’ll lose?
Andrew Little’s own defamation case created a precedent where the Judge (wrongly) decided that Politicians have a duty to say accusatory stuff and therefore get qualified privilege to do so outside of Parliament (even though they have privilege inside Parliament).

Little’s disgusting escape from the consequences of his actions will help Winston.
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May 3, 2024 10:29am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKL_B27JL8
RFK Jr: This Is What I Believe In.
I have about six months left to make sure Americans know what I believe and that there is a third option come Election Day. As an independent candidate, I’ve alienated all the largest corporate donors – so I’m relying on small contributions from people like you. [Pity he doesn’t sound more like his uncle Jack. It’d be worth two or three poll points.]
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May 3, 2024 11:08am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_p8DzpItII
Jamie Arbuckle on our first 6 months in Government.
Jamie Arbuckle provides an update on all of the work we’ve done in our first 6 months in Government and highlights our April tour, in which we set out to update and listen to the New Zealand public.
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May 3, 2024 11:08am
cmm

From what I can tell, this Structured Literacy (which Herald seems to be calling structured learning) seems to be the right way to go about teaching reading.

As a dyslexic myself, I am acutely aware that there are educational needs outside of the mainstream. SL has the endorsement of various dyslexia organisations so that is a good thing.

While teachers play a very important role in this, I hope that they also encourage parental involvement too.

With information readily accessible on the internet via a multitude of browsers etc, children probably increasingly see learning to read as hard work. Hopefully that can be turned around.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/education/education-minister-erica-standford-can-retire-happy-if-structured-learning-takes-off-in-nz-schools-the-front-page/DXZY6YZPORAQTO23TXWXCVFRZQ/
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May 3, 2024 12:07pm
Maggie Pie

Thort worth sharing….

We’ve really taken an interest in Trumpys trial in NY ever since that guy set fire to himself outside the court 🙁
Turns out he was right…. here’s the proof it’s a TOTAL SHAM!

The former prosecutor for DA Alvin Bragg PLEADS THE 5TH when Rep Matt Gaetz asks him….. “If Biden’s DOJ directed the political prosecutions of Donald Trump?”

“I plead the fifth”

https://twitter.com/kylenabecker/status/1786052694530039861
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May 3, 2024 12:08pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

London is ‘unrecognisable’
It opened it’s doors to jihad.
Trump rally.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/trump-rants-london-is-unrecognisable-and-has-opened-its-door-to-jihad-during-wild-rally-speech/ar-AA1o2cLM
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May 3, 2024 12:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

“Donald Trump claimed President Joe Biden is “determined to create the conditions” of a 7 October style attack in the US during an anti-migrant rally speech in Wisconsin.”
“The former US president told supporters Mr Biden was planning to bring “massive numbers” of Gazan people from the Middle East to towns across the nation.”

I think Biden wants to destroy America because he can’t win the Election. Typical leftie nastiness.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/watch-trump-claims-biden-determined-to-create-conditions-of-october-7-attack-in-us-during-anti-migrant-speech/ar-AA1o1cXY
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May 3, 2024 12:28pm
All_on_Red

Trumps Court case in NY seems to be going well for him
Stormy Daniels lawyer just testified.
‘During Thursday’s proceedings, Keith Davidson, the lawyer representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels, gave revealing testimony that completely undermines Bragg’s charges against Trump. ‘
‘ Davidson argued that the $130,000 payment to Daniels should not be construed as “hush money” but rather as a legitimate “consideration” payment. ‘

Then there is this comment from Professor of Law Johnathan Turley
‘I think this judge may have already committed a reversible error,” GWU University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News. “He could try to amend it, he could try to change it in his instructions, but that jury has now been told repeatedly that there are federal election crimes here, strongly suggesting that the payment to Stormy Daniels did violate federal election laws. That’s just not true.”
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/05/02/stormy-daniels-lawyer-just-destroyed-braggs-case-against-trump-n4928720
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May 3, 2024 1:10pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  It is slowly turning to custard for the Democrats.
  Trump is a winner. Mentally he is doing very well. He won’t break.
  
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  May 3, 2024 6:29pm
Jack5

SkyNews Australia beginning weekly New Zealand news bulletin from tomorrow:

https://stoppress.co.nz/news/sky-news-australia-to-release-nz-based-news-bulletin/
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May 3, 2024 1:16pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So does Jack Nyhof get fed bullshit from NZ mainstream media or do we get some real NZ News?
  NZ based. What does that mean? Presenter for Sky is presenting ‘from’ NZ, or the presenter is in Oz as a Sky reporter?
  
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  May 3, 2024 2:45pm
- Lummox
  
  Sky has some very good opinion programmes. Rita Panahi, Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt are very watchable. These presenters are, not surprisingly, focussed on Australian news, but they do look at the wider picture, including New Zealand. It would be good if Sky filled the NZ News void with reporters of their calibre.
  
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  May 3, 2024 4:10pm
- sungsamning
  
  Excellent news!
  
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  May 3, 2024 7:32pm
Maggie Pie

Things that make you go hmmm….

People with knowledge of the matter, are saying the Green Pardy has already made up their minds to expel Darleen Tana, but the co-leaders have decided they can’t afford any more bad publicity at this moment.

(In the meantime, I assume she remains sucking on the taxpayers nipple?)
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May 3, 2024 2:13pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Nom nom nom. Watch the Greens protect her.
  Is Ms Golriz still on tit?
  
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  May 3, 2024 2:46pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    GG is gone from Parliament.
    
    4 0
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    May 3, 2024 2:56pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Gone from Parliament but is she still getting paid?
      
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      May 3, 2024 6:32pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    The only thing Golly gets from the taxpayer these days, is if Big Ger puts an expense claim into Parliamentary Services for afternoon tea 😀
    
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    May 3, 2024 3:14pm
MCōs

https://x.com/lukepbeasley/status/1786162571675828386?s=46&t=XZLqGbhN-xeYzprhTaktsg
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May 3, 2024 2:22pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

We already have co-governance. Tribal rule is here.
Julian is having trouble uploading to Youtube, so the video here today is a repeat of yesterdays. The new one should be ready at 5pm.
I have been chasing this since 11am. These things happen.
Are the NZ Govt and Waitangi Tribunal censoring Julian Batchelor and the Stop Co-Governance/Blog from posting? It would not surprise me one bit. Mr Luxon is in bed with Maori.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/do-we-already-have-a-dual-government-in-new-zealand-part-3/?
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May 3, 2024 2:24pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The latest video is now available, so I will post it again at 8am tomorrow.
  
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  May 3, 2024 6:39pm
Maggie Pie

‘Chynah’s Belt & Goad Initiative’ 🙁

I’m sooo pleased we have Winnie as our ‘Foreign Minister’.
Imagine what things could be like if we had that horrible ozzie Bob Car.

https://twitter.com/dom_lucre/status/1786107478997950951
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May 3, 2024 3:05pm
Ghost

School principals say they’re becoming “increasingly concerned” about the pace of change the new Government is “imposing” on schools.

It comes a day after the Government announced major changes to the way literacy is taught in New Zealand.

The Principals Federation warns a raft of changes are happening “without critical consultation with the sector”.

“First came cell phone bans, next one hour each of reading, writing and maths, then attendance, and now, we are being directed to implement a structured literacy approach,” the Federation said in a statement.

Article

Hmmm, maybe you can petition the government to allow you to do nothing and keep pushing out failures.
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May 3, 2024 3:28pm
- artemisia
  
  Hard but fair Ghost. As they say – if you always do what you’ve always done …
  
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  May 3, 2024 4:03pm
- imalwaysright
  
  ““First came cell phone bans, next one hour each of reading, writing and maths, then attendance, and now, we are being directed to implement a structured literacy approach,” the Federation said ”
  
  No awareness whatsoever. Its almost Pythonesque.
  
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  May 3, 2024 4:10pm
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    Much more of this and schools could turn into places of learning!
    
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    May 3, 2024 6:26pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yep, learning from Marxist teachers!!!!!
      
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      May 3, 2024 6:45pm
thirteenstars

“structured literacy”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyYITYAnXew

That’s good old phonics to the rest of us and it’ll be mandatory in NZ schools. Learn the sounds of the letters and sound out the word. Who would have thought it was that simple?

Well, many of us who have been warning of the mind-stunting whole-word or look-say methods employed widely for decades which have only served to create several generations of functionally illiterate children and adults.

In 1955–a mere 70 years ago–Rudolf Flesch wrote Why Johnny Can’t Read, exposing the corrupting effects of the new methods, but only a subset of parents heeded the warnings, the rest sent their children to schools that decade after decade closed minds instead of expanding them. When reading becomes hard the child is discouraged and frustrated in many ways leading to all kinds of learning difficulties and behavioural problems.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Johnny-Cant-Read-about/dp/0060913401/

Well done, Erica Stanford. But witness the tone of that video, as if a discovery has suddenly been made. Well, in a twisted way, maybe it has. Most teachers will find it novel, they themselves perhaps having never learned to read with such ease or as was often the case, actively discouraged from employing the phonic method.

It’s bloody criminal.
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May 3, 2024 3:28pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Bloody English and “sound it out” ….
  
  lose – hose
  bought – cough – through
  daughter – laughter
  does – goes
  to – two – too
  etc etc
  
  A Dutch immigrant friend told me about being confused why “mans laughter” could get someone sent to jail …. 🙂
  
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  May 3, 2024 4:15pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yes, English is a nitemayor, but the beauty of structured literacy is that children will be exposed to our Language’s idiosinkracees in a carefully scaffolded manner.
    
    It’s going to be a vast improvement on the whole-langwijdge see & guess approach to reading that had been all-pervasive for 40+ years in our primary schools.
    
    I work with year 9 pupils, ‘graduates of the whole-language approach” who lack the ability to decode/decipher words like climb & clamber. … They can see from a picture that someone is moving up a slope of rocks….and read climb up instead of what the text states…clamber up.
    In the context of the story, it didn’t matter, but when the child is given text to read with no pictures, they are lost.
    
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    May 3, 2024 5:38pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      Indeed, Maggy. Back in the early 90s I had proponents of look-say telling me their remedial reading programmes employed phonics as the remedy. Staggering.
      
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      May 3, 2024 8:09pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    Yeah, Ian, smart people can teach and learn the inconsistencies in any language. The great triumph of English is its diverse origins and ability to absorb and change.
    
    The language cannot be learned by rote, it must have rules and those rules are defined by the phonic method.
    
    There are only 44 phonemes in English. Hell, even a 5-year-old already has a multi-thousand word vocabulary. Do you think it’s easier to learn 44 unique sounds that comprise *any* word or thousands of specific words by sight?
    
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    May 3, 2024 6:40pm
  - JimBobJoe
    
    As a descendent of a Dutch immigrant, take your anecdote somewhere else.
    
    I and the scions of about 15 other Dutch families all went through the same primary school (about 50-60 kids) and all learnt reading via phonetics and sounding out. So your anecdote doesnt pass muster …
    
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    May 3, 2024 7:11pm
Ghost

Hmmm, what’s more dangerous, being a Boeing whistleblower or a Clinton associate

Another Boeing whistleblower found dead
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May 3, 2024 3:50pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Having shit on Clintons will get you dead very quick.
  Even if someone else said you have that shit.
  No names, I want to stay alive thanks.
  
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  May 3, 2024 6:49pm
Maggie Pie

No surpises there then 🙁

Helen Clark outs herself to HDPA….. as the person who narked on Winston to Bob Car!

With fiends like that, who needs enemas?
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May 3, 2024 5:14pm
- nathie
  
  Has there ever been (in NZ political history) any other former Prime Ministers that have (and continue) to interfere with:
  
  1) NZ’s domestic politics.
  2) NZ’s foreign affairs.
  
  Like the way that Helen Clark does?
  
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  May 3, 2024 5:18pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Hulun seems to have forgotten that her and her old lefty policies were kicked for touch by the electorate in 2008, 16 years ago. Reliving the rallying call to the barricades again comrade.
  
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  May 3, 2024 5:22pm
- nathie
  
  Talking about interference (this time Labour), let’s not forget:
  
  Warning!! 😨
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/01/helen-clark-s-comments-about-jacinda-ardern-naive-and-condescending-political-commentator-says/_jcr_content/par/image.dynimg.full.q75.jpg/v1674164095188/Helen-Clark-Jacinda-Ardern-1120.jpg
  
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  May 3, 2024 5:24pm
  - Ghost
    
    Capation [? Caption]
    
    “Are you my mommy?”
    
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    May 3, 2024 5:36pm
    - Ghost
      
      Whoops, thanks mod
      
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      May 3, 2024 7:07pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    “Is that a gun in your pocket Hulun?” 😛
    
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    May 3, 2024 6:44pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Has Aunty Helen ever had a colonoscopy?
  Never know what they could find 🙂
  
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  May 3, 2024 6:52pm
Ghost

Britain’s governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as an array of election results pour, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a UK general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years.

Labour won control of councils in England it hasn’t held for decades and was successful in a special by-election for Parliament that, if repeated in a general election in coming months, would lead to one of the Conservatives’ biggest-ever defeats.

Article
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May 3, 2024 10:36pm
Ghost

Hmmm, wonder how much labour are involved in this protest….

A group of protesters congregated in front of the central Auckland home of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.

A police spokesperson said they were called to an address at 7.46pm following reports of protesters shouting.

Article
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May 3, 2024 10:39pm
Jack5

More woke stuff from the Leftist NZ Herald?

Police arrest a “female youth” after an Auckland stabbing.

What is wrong with the description “young woman” or “young female”?

Since Middle English, from which our current language evolved centuries ago, “a youth” has been a widely used description of a young man. The word “youth” alone has generally meant young people, male and female.

The Woke in their drive to muddy traditional descriptions of gender, are pushing the use of “female youth”. You can bet this is for connotations of gender “fluidity”.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bayfair-evacuated-by-police/AYBBARO5R5D7BO6PAROFY7KP4E/
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May 3, 2024 10:40pm
- Ghost
  
  It’s not the papers, that is the police statement
  
  Police have taken a female youth into custody following an earlier incident at Bayfair Shopping Centre.
  
  Police were called to the shopping centre around 4:40pm following reports of an assault.
  Further Police action is being considered, however Police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the assault.
  
  The victim remains in a serious condition in hospital
  
  Facebook
  
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  May 3, 2024 10:46pm
  - Jack5
    
    Traditionally, the police have talked in bureaucratic, formal jargon.
    
    Reporters for a century or more translated their words into common spoken English.
    
    Some accused the Auckland police of Woke bias after the ambush of those gathering to hear Posie Parker. Were the critics correct?
    
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    May 3, 2024 10:56pm
    - Ghost
      
      I find the police statement to be interesting.
      
      A young female has a large age range. Female youth. We’re looking at a kid that has done this stabbing.
      
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      May 3, 2024 11:03pm
      - Jack5
        
        Or, a “female youth” has a gender range.
        
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        May 3, 2024 11:05pm

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