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September 17, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 17 September 2024

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

When I saw the headline, I thought it was Women’s Refuge cutting out that branch that spent money on themselves. But no, that was the Porirua branch. This is the Auckland branch, kicked out for bullying and unsafe work practices.

You have to ask yourself, what kind of a dysfunctional organisation is Woman’s Refuge?

And you have to laugh:

“Refuge is an organisation that tends to attract strong and passionate people who often aren’t that good at compromise and communication.”

If a man had said that back in the day, he’d have been labelled an MCP. But that quote is from Ang Jury, long-time National Collective CEO.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350410037/auckland-womens-refuge-kicked-out-national-collective
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September 17, 2024 8:00am
- graham
  
  “Refuge is an organisation that tends to attract strong and passionate people who often aren’t that good at compromise and communication.”
  
  Sounds like an ideal place for Julie-Anne Genter …
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:27am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Or maybe for Meka Whaitiri?
    
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    September 17, 2024 8:44am
- AitchW
  
  My experience (through a family member who had professional deals with Refuge) is that the genuinely concerned employees are hugely outnumbered by those who are there simply for personal gain in the guise of helping the less fortunate.
  Donations of clothing and furnishings are triaged before they get to the refuge and funds are funneled into ipads, laptops, personal grooming, clothing, travel and the use of motor vehicles.
  Many branches are run by cartels referred to as the “aunties”.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:29am
  - John Loveridge
    
    A childhood friend of mine was involved for a long time, but eventually pulled back due to the “cult of the aunties” as she termed it. The phenomenon is not unusual in this type of organisation. Plain-speaking folk would call it corruption.
    
    It’s not really any different to the myriad of mysterious “trusts” that run around the Far North, sinking government funds into fancy offices and swish cars, yet nobody can tell you what they actually do.
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:09am
  - Close Hen Counters
    
    That’s terrible – I will never forget personally delivering high end used clothes and toys to the refuge in Onehunga and the woman I dealt with was so rude and ungrateful. Have never been back.
    
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    September 17, 2024 12:15pm
  - sirknz
    
    Similar deal with a charity I worked for a financial crisis or two ago.
    
    Goods that were donated like clothing would have staff going through them with comments like “That’s too good to go to a family, I will take it” not being uncommon. Tales of a person counting money from the various appeals, in a room alone, and living a lifestyle beyond their salary were not unheard of either.
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:34pm
  - PurplePen
    
    That’s what Community Employment Group (CEG) used to do way back when. It was a dept of labour business unit. Staff had all the latest cellphones, laptops, cars, constantly upgraded. No idea if any of their funds found it out into the actual community. Dept CEO left them to their own desires as afraid of being labelled.
    
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    September 17, 2024 2:14pm
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Its leader became a “much loved” labour MP and Minister I seem to recall…
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:01pm
- pdm
  
  Bollocks we have a daughter managing a Womens Refuge Rural Area.
  
  What she tells us from time to time does make us wonder. She does a lot of travel around the North Island and the outfit appears to function on a lot of Hooey and not so much Dooey.
  
  I understand she is in Wellington today.
  
  Having said that she is on call and does get called out at night to perform `rescues’ of women and children, presumably with Police support.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:22am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Perhaps a consequence of not having enough (or likely any) ‘mission focused’ men involved. Focus and logic is needed to do an effective job, and all-women organizations have a strong tendency to devolve into internecine conflict and other pointless drama that drags on their ability to do useful work, even a few men being involved can tamp down on that tendency.
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:32am
    - Paulus
      
      Men in New Zealand are no longer allowed to be involved in any such organisation now.
      Woman’s Refuge is another woman and whanau only organisation.
      Why are we seeing so many more such women’s organisations and their exponential growth.
      How many single parents both men and women are there please ?
      Why cannot I find out ?
      
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      September 17, 2024 3:24pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    The housing shortage and high cost of living must be aggravating family violence.
    Women have no options apart from the Refuge and the men have generally no where to go apart from the street.
    Well done adern. You didn’t make the problem , but you certainly made it a lot worse.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:17am
- cmm
  
  “Refuge is an organisation that tends to attract strong and passionate people who often aren’t that good at compromise and communication.”
  
  People with the Messiah Complex seem to often have this trait.
  Couldn’t bully people at school, so they find people who are low down the social scale (and power scale) to pick on.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:41am
  - Flossie
    
    There’s that idea again that domestic violence occurs in the “lower classes”. Absolutely untrue. People not of that class are somewhat better at keeping it hidden.
    I could write quite a bit on the subject, including my experiences using Women’s Refuge services.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:26am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      *Generally* it’s true. Those at the bottom of the heap *tend* to have less intelligence and less self control. That’s also often why they are at the bottom of the heap.
      
      Why they are less intelligent and have less self control is a whole different question. Life can deal cruel hands. There by the grace of God go I, and all that.
      
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      September 17, 2024 9:46pm
  - sirknz
    
    A person at a charity I worked for said that charities as organisations tend to take on aspects of what they claim their mission is, but with damaged people trying to fix themselves. It did explain the behaviours of some of the lifers who worked there.
    
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    September 17, 2024 4:03pm
DimChappie

Simon Anderson writes that Shaneel Lal has won a global journalism award from a global young leaders group for, among other things, protecting women:
“Lal is involved in the movement to protect religious minorities, queer people and women from hate speech that incites violence… ”

https://x.com/SimonRAnderson/status/1835628410833703172

https://www.oneyoungworld.com/JOTY-2024-Winners

The prestigious panel including the BBC’s Lyse Doucet apparently failed to do any research into Lal’s background. This comes up near the top of a google search:

https://www.chrislynchmedia.com/kiwi-bank-new-zealander-of-the-year-awards-under-fire-as-recipients-suitability-questioned/
http://karldufresne.blogspot.com/2023/04/most-people-just-wish-shaneel-lal-would.html

I have sent One Young World a link to the above Chris Lynch article. There is plenty of other Lal filth online. Send it to the organiser here:

https://www.oneyoungworld.com/contact
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September 17, 2024 8:04am
- AitchW
  
  DC, what and where does LAl publish? ‘ve seen nothing from him since he became a Labour party advisor.
  Surely hate filled outbursts on X/Twitter don’t count as journalism?
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:37am
- Swifty
  
  That’s a sick joke.
  
  That man spews hate towards those who oppose his views – including sections of the gay community and New Zealand women who stand for women’s rights.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:50am
- John Loveridge
  
  Lal is an asshole. He’d happily beat the shit out of Posy Parker while screeching about the need to protect free speech and minorities.
  
  And I missed the bit where he transitioned from activist to journalist.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:12am
  - Paulus
    
    Is Lal a man or women – do we have to go to Fiji to find the answer ?
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:28pm
- JackRabbit
  
  “…protect… …women from hate speech that incites violence…”
  
  Shaneel Lal did nothing to protect Posie Parker from said incited hate speech and violence. In fact he/she/it incited said violence.
  
  So what next?
  
  An award for Mallard protecting the protesters at Parliament?
  
  A posthumous award for Hitler for protecting Jews?
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:59am
- Stellaboxer
  
  They promote their own nothing to do with merit or competence everything to do with ideological compliance. Ignore the accolades it’s how they’ve staffed their respective media outlets.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:23am
- Damocles11
  
  One Young World is a progressive propaganda outfit, dishing out awards to the DEI crowd in hopes of favourable media coverage of ‘their kind of people’.
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:50am
- PurplePen
  
  Excellent sending them link to truth about Lal. Need to do same for those internal orgs that keep dishing out acolades to St J. Diane von Furstenberg’s women in power being the latest.
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:19pm
  - AitchW
    
    That award for Ardern is a slap in the face of New Zealanders facing rampant inflation, spiraling living costs and increasingly lawless streets as a direct result of her narcissistic incompetence.
    What a farce, speaks volumes about the value of the reward.
    
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    September 17, 2024 5:38pm
nygr

Last week Canterbury University student mag blasphemed a Christian icon (the last supper painting) by posing our PM as Judas and Chloe the green, as Jesus. I’m wondering why the silence from our 400 “religious” leaders. Oh maybe they are too busy playing politics and objecting to the coalitions’ stance on the treaty of Waitangi. With any luck next month’s edition will include an apology (yeah right) and Mohammed staring as lead in American History X.
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September 17, 2024 8:04am
- AitchW
  
  Perhaps the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics encouraged such caricature. CUs effort is pretty tame compared to the simpering Rainbow offering at Paris. (I’m not religious, but I found that performance deeply disturbing. )
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:32am
- Local Miller
  
  Is it possible that this was never brought to the attention of any of the religious leaders? Or possibly they did object but the reporting on this has been squashed by media?
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:11am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Local boy – May be that is a pig flying in the sky?
    
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    September 17, 2024 12:32pm
- MCōs
  
  Don’t worry about it, mate.
  That particular student magazine has been around for almost one hundred years with far more controversial stuff than that to rile up the upstanding citizens of Christchurch.
  The Last Supper has been parodied multiple times. Here’s some examples
  https://nz.pinterest.com/artgirl67/art-parody-last-supper/
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:05am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Not only is it blasphemous, it’s pitiful. These idiots have nothing else to do but mock Christianity. Poor fools.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:18am
    - MCōs
      
      No you’re wrong.
      That magazine has had a lot of articles with a sexual undertone over the years
      Look up the archives if you want to be outraged
      https://www.canta.co.nz/
      
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      September 17, 2024 10:39am
    - AitchW
      
      I guess they’re relying on the Christian ethic of forgiveness. Let’s see them equally mock Mohammed.
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:40pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Agreed, MCos. Absolutely not worth paying attention to what’s in a student mag.
    
    Until the editor runs for parliament as a Labour or Green apparatchik. Then, have it handy in case of hypocrisy.
    
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    September 17, 2024 11:29am
  - kowtow
    
    ‘The Last Supper has been parodied multiple times’
    
    Marvellous , hardly original in that case .
    
    How about , just for novelty and diversity’s sake they do one of the other bigly monotheist religions …….
    
    no didn’t think so , that would require some balls, so why not just keep picking that low hanging fruit …..
    
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    September 17, 2024 11:30am
    - MCōs
      
      If you feel they are not insulting all religions in an even handed way you can initiate a complaint
      From their website:
      “If you would like to make a complaint about the magazine, please email the complaint in writing to [email protected], where the Editor will respond within 10 working days. If not satisfied with the response, the next step is to raise the complaint with the Media Council”
      
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      September 17, 2024 1:17pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Meh, how brave and transgressive they are. Now do Mohamed!
  
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  September 17, 2024 5:03pm
Matt Long

“Mohammed Amar, 42, Yasser Ajaibe, 39; Mohammed Zameer Sadiq, 49; Mohammed Siyab, 49; Abid Saddiq, 43; Tahir Yasin, 38 and Ramin Bari, 37, ”
I’m just trying to discover if there might be a pattern regarding the Asian child rapists protected by the Rotherham police in the UK. I do hope Keir Starmer won’t be arresting me.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/rotherham-survivor-powerfully-confronts-abusers-court
https://x.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1835175397165875706
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September 17, 2024 8:05am
- Matt Long
  
  And there’s the good old BBC for you.
  https://x.com/LeilaniDowding/status/1835665172528070862
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:08am
  - Don Beckett
    
    It appears that some members of the religion of peace strike again – but this time are made accountable – we hope.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:24am
- G152
  
  Muslim rape gangs are not new in Britain
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:18am
  - mandk
    
    Nor are they confined to Rotherham, nor indeed cities in the North.
    
    They are everywhere, including Oxford, Bristol, Peterborough.
    
    It’s because Islamic Law trumps the law of the land. And under Islamic Law, it doesn’t count if the girl you rape is not a Muslim.
    
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    September 17, 2024 8:56am
    - kowtow
      
      Suella Braverman has a piece in today’s Daily Telegraph on this subject .
      “industrial scale coverup ” she called it.
      
      Behind a paywall , but worth a look if interested.
      
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      September 17, 2024 2:36pm
      - Groggy
        
        mmm as a former home secretary in the party that had been in power for the last 14 years maybe she should have done something about it.
        
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        September 17, 2024 4:37pm
- Simon
  
  Huw Edwards not going to prison either. They lie when they claim internet censorship is to protect children.
  
  UK is a political waste land.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:35am
- cmm
  
  The so-called victims are racist for making a fuss.
  They should having willingly embraced the diversity dividend.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:07am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  All sound like typical english people to me.
  
  Nothing to see there citizen, move along!
  
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  September 17, 2024 5:04pm
Tomtoddy

Someone called Neal Curtis wrote a piece for Newsroom and they were daft enough to publish it. Even Karl Marx would blush reading such dribble. Curtis claims to be a comics scholar and it shows. He means ‘comical’ scholar or maybe ‘commie’ scholar.

Curtis is apparently attacking Seymour and something he labels neo-liberalism. It is really too pathetic and weak to proffer a review. Like most commies he finds nasty comes more easy than pleasant. His beef is that the coalition has started “a process that could transform what is an incomparable, living document into three supposedly universally recognisable, formal principles”. He then launches into a diatribe about capitalism and freedom, decrying efforts to deregulate and promote the individual over the group.

He offers this gem. “Neoliberalism, which has secured the growth of inequality and allowed individuals to amass more wealth than most nations, and the liberalism that underpins it, which has now morphed into this new variant of hard-right libertarianism, are engineering a society that is becoming less recognisably democratic, and much closer to the aristocracy that democracy supposedly replaced”. He argues Seymour is pursuing zero regulation which is patently absurd and misleading. What he proposes is pure Marxism.

The weird thing is we pay this guy’s salary. He is a lecturer at Auckland Uni. He obviously indoctrinates the next generation with such failed rubbish. Sad, really.
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September 17, 2024 8:08am
- Simon
  
  ” society that is becoming less recognisably democratic, and much closer to the aristocracy”
  
  Together with massive wealth inequality.
  
  He is describing the Iwi system. A lot of wealth held by a narrow few for their almost sole benefit while the Maori masses go without. Often at the bottom of the NZ heap. The Iwi system is a third world style inequality implemented by NZ’s political systems and clown show govt departments.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:24am
  - Burtland
    
    you forgot to add that these elites pay no tax
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:06am
  - imalwaysright
    
    It would be interesting to publish pictures and details of the housing and lifestyle of the average maori gravy trainer beside that of the average maori that they say they represent.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:30am
  - Burtland
    
    worse still, they are allowed to operate racist charities …
    
    Iwi persuaded Labour in 2005 to change the law so tribal business corporations could register as charities and avoid paying tax – even though the benefits flow to relatives instead of the wider community, which should have ruled them out.
    
    https://www.nzcpr.com/a-colossal-mistake/
    
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    September 17, 2024 8:45pm
- Observant Octagenarian
  
  I read the article. I agree with your comments. But the bottom line he is a ‘former’ lecturer at Auckland Uni.
  Question. Where is he now?
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:34am
  - Colinxy
    
    According to the University of Auckland’s website, the neo-communist is still there: https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/n-curtis
    
    Proof of my labeling (from that webpage):
    “I am a comics scholar and critical theorist with wide-ranging interests.”
    
    “Qualifications:
    BA (hons) Cultural Studies; MA Critical Theory; PhD”
    
    “Areas of Expertise:
    …
    – Critical Theory…”
    
    And as people should know by now, Critical Theory was advanced and developed by Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse to make the West Marxist.
    
    And we know that via all three of them (though it predates them going all the way back to Karl Marx), that when a critical theorist uses the term “democracy”, you should be suspicious. According to Marxists, true democracy is communism and communism is true democracy. Lenin described the democracy in the West as Bourgeoisie democracy, i.e., fake.
    
    He alludes to the Marxist definition of democracy in his statement: “Democracy, if it is to mean anything, is about ensuring that those who have been excluded are included. And it’s about enabling their inclusion.”
    
    At a surface-reading this seems reasonable, but I’d put money on it that he means the more communist definition. To quote Lenin:
    
    “… in capitalist society we have a democracy that is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority. The dictatorship of the proletariat, the period of transition to communism, will for the first time create democracy for the people, for the majority, along with the necessary suppression of the exploiters, of the minority. Communism alone is capable of providing really complete democracy, and the more complete it is, the sooner it will become unnecessary and wither away of its own accord. …”
    
    Curtis echoes Lenin’s sentiment with “…ensuring that those who have been excluded are included.” And of course, he thrashes Lenin’s point in his previous paragraph (which has already been already cited) with “…and much closer to the aristocracy that democracy supposedly replaced.” IOW, “Neoliberalism” is aristocratic, the minority, whereas his critical theory is the “complete democracy”.
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:54pm
- NoFax
  
  First, never read anything from these far-left activist organizations – give nothing to hate!
  
  Communists cannot face reality and see that since the world (starting in Europe) embraced the free-market and trade in the 18th century the levels of poverty has dramatically dropped – the free-market lead to more production and more people living lives with material comfort. Remember, the biggest health threat to the world today is that we eat too much! I cannot imagine what my ancestors going through the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s would have thought about too much food being the problem.
  
  The basic flaw with communism is that they think the free market is holding back material wealth (maybe all the goods are stored in some mega warehouse) and then evil corporations let some of it out at a time for a profit! Rather, the natural state of affairs is nothing and it is the free market that produces the material goods and services that we like. Without “evil capitalism” you have nothing or a best a pitiful planned economy like the Soviet Union.
  
  There have always been enemies of the individual and the potential for individuals to work together for each’s interest (which can be benevolent too) and for a free society. In a communist’s delusions he always imagines he will be the people’s poet or inthe vanguard of the Party striving to new worlds. The reality, as was in the Soviet Union, the poets and the intellectuals are ship to the gulags and the rest of society becomes the people’s coal miner or steel worker.
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:20pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  “a process that could transform what is an incomparable, living document”
  
  There’s his magical thinking right there! A magical document that you can make whatever shit up about it that you like.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:52pm
Simon

Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.

https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1806745000971296833

Yep, thats Joe Biden not Ryan Wesley Routh

Would there be any difference.
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September 17, 2024 8:09am
- pdm
  
  Easy answer to that Simon.
  
  Do you really think Joe Biden could find a bush to hide in.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:33am
  - Colville
    
    I think Joe could easily wander into a bush…finding his way out again would be another story!
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:41am
- cmm
  
  Do you think Joe Biden actually types that?
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:44am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes, the assasination attempts, because of this type of rhetoric that has been going on since 2015, is directly responsible for those attempts and can be laid squarely at the feet of the Democrats. They are the instigators and rebel rousers..
    I’m surprised that some redneck has not started popping off the odd Demoncrat.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:30am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      https://youtu.be/Iludfj6Pe7w?si=5A3r7mPrBHgeD9Yl
      
      Really??
      
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      September 17, 2024 11:02am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Jill, for sure.
    She can be quite nasty.
    
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    September 17, 2024 11:23am
    - pdm
      
      And Jill very much likes being Mrs President!!!
      
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      September 17, 2024 11:38am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Obama is in her ear.
        
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        September 17, 2024 1:39pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  I’m guessing that the Left are about to stop talking of “Stochastic Terrorism” very soon:
  
  Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.
  
  That’s a quote from The Daily Kos and I included it in a post two years ago, pointing out that it’s therefore entirely logical and scientific to shut down such speech.
  
  Not just Islamist speech of course, but Right-Wing speech – the sort of thing that leads to events like the January 6 riots in the US Capitol.
  
  You can see how once again The ScienceTM blends so beautifully with Left-Wing desires for control in so many different areas. Amazing how often that happens.
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:09am
Grunter

As you look around world economies it is a sea of debt and ongoing deficits as the cancer of socialism destroys livelihoods.

The only bright spot is Libertarian hero Milei in Argentina. He has just set a zero deficit (balanced) budget, projecting 5% growth and inflation of 18% (it was 266% remember).

Time and again free market policies show the way to go. Murray Rothbards Libertarian economics is the cream of the crop. Socialism always fails. Centralism just dilutes the impact of true Libertarianism.

I just wish NZ would wake up and follow the Melei success – why wouldn’t we, it is just so obvious.
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September 17, 2024 8:09am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  This approach may be successful,and if it is then let’s by all means look at how it can be replicated here.
  
  But if he’s only just done it, then we haven’t seen the outcomes yet, and so can’t yet declare success.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:53am
- imalwaysright
  
  It is obvious, as you say, but we are in the middle of a train wreck and we don’t like being distracted!!!
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:16am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Why wouldn’t we?
  Socialism has been installed in our heads. Someone gave us 9 years of socialist nonsense, then another one gave us another 6 years of it.
  Takes a while to get over it.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:49am
  - Taieri
    
    Someone gave us 9 years of socialist nonsense, then another one gave us another 6 years of it
    ———-
    
    Someone?
    Voters!
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:10am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yes, a certain section of voters.
      
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      September 17, 2024 1:40pm
  - Grunter
    
    Steve – more like 90 years…..
    
    Socialism kicked in under the guise of ‘The Welfare State’ about 90 years ago in NZ. The money earners now puke up around 50% tax in total to keep the central planning ponzi scheme operating. Generations of Kiwis have now been wrecked by free handouts and have no idea how to fend for themselves.
    
    Melei’s ‘chainsaw approach’ is the only workable option left. Anything else simply delays the inevitable. I say – Let’s get on with it, take the medicine and face reality.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:43am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yes, the goose that lays the golden eggs is just going to stop laying one day.
      
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      September 17, 2024 1:45pm
Nigel Kearney

When reading the stories about Aussie Malcolm, you will notice how eager they are to mention his party affiliation, usually in the headline and otherwise in the lead paragraph. Compared to stories about Kiri Allan, who is generally described as a ‘former justice minister’.
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September 17, 2024 8:09am
- Simon
  
  Much of MSM is mental illness. Suggest stop reading it. At this point reading MSM is probably a form of self harm.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:15am
  - Paulus
    
    Last evening at about 4.40pm I was on RNZ and listened without turning off, until later.
    What a shithole this Country is if I accept what was being said by so many different people, but all saying the same thing on the Radio.
    In Tauranga last week we had the 20th annual AIMS Games whereby some 13,500 Intermediate age children from 390 Schools, had a great time as far as we can see.
    They were not only from New Zealand Intermediates but some from the Islands -Fiji were popular as one as they had saved for the trip.
    Is this what we are bringing these children into, as defined by the many at RNZ, and their callers of similar ilk, and I am sure all other so called media?
    These so called media people are a disgrace to our Country that they want to change continually.
    Why do they do it ?
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:40am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Both Stuff and the NZH dug themselves a large hole with those articles. They have flung mud on a dead man to point score on the National party. I hope Malcolm’s family has spoken to a good lawyer as the articles were disgraceful pieces of maligning garbage.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:29am
  - Ghost
    
    Talk to a lawyer for what? The media were reporting that the police are investigating him. The articles are the right thing to do, if there are more people out there that read it and can come forward then good. People wanted historic cases from the abuse inquiry investigated, and now because it is a former national politician you want it covered up? People have come forward with claims of being sexually abused by this man. They haven’t come forward because decades ago he was a national mp and they want to attack national.
    
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    September 17, 2024 8:40am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      In what part did I suggest it should be covered up?
      
      For a start they were allegations that were being investigated for probity.
      
      That in itself is enough to state clearly the he had rights to be as anonymous as his accusers.
      
      If he had been charged with an offense then he becomes fair game….in this instance he was an easy get from a media that basically made themselves judge and jury…..is that OK by you?
      
      Furthermore not once did I insinuate the allegations were made by people to get at the N Party. That was done soley by the media.
      
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      September 17, 2024 9:06am
    - Ghost
      
      This truly is a strange blog.
      
      Drag queens grooming children,
      Trans, grooming children
      
      Former politician investigated for sexually abusing children, bad media for reporting it, it’s an attack on national by the media. Cover it up and don’t report it.
      
      The same blog where people often mention Darren Hughes. Labour youth camp
      
      Nope, bad media for reporting this story. Cover it up please media because kiwblog is full of precious bigots that cannot take it when doesn’t involve labour.
      
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      September 17, 2024 9:25am
      - Taieri
        
        The time to investigate Malcolm was when he was still alive. Everyone has the right to defend him/herself. Dead people can’t do it.
        
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        September 17, 2024 10:13am
      - Ghost
        
        They tried, suggest yo7 read the latest article
        
        More coming out
        
        The detective who led the first investigation into child sex abuse allegations about a former National Party minister says he believed the complainant, and thought there would be others, but there wasn’t enough evidence to lay charges.
        
        David Pearson, who’s since retired from policing, was working out of a station in Newmarket, Auckland in 1992 when an 18-year-old alleged he’d been repeatedly sexually assaulted by Anthony “Aussie“ Malcolm in the three years prior.
        
        In 2012, a 10-year-old boy, who we’ll refer to as Nathan, told his mother he’d been sexually assaulted by Malcolm about a year earlier, and police were notified. Again, no charges were laid.
        
        Article
        
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        September 17, 2024 1:20pm
      - Ghost
        
        And a new article, one surivivor reported it 3 times to the police
        
        He said the 1992 police complaint went nowhere as did another to police in Auckland in 2019 and to police in the Bay of Plenty around 2020.
        
        “I always wanted it to come out,” he told the Herald. “We went to everybody we could to expose him.”
        
        Private investigator
        
        Bowerman told the Herald he had – for reasons he did not know – been assigned to stake out Malcolm in 1988 early in his career as a private investigator working for a former police officer. He later monitored houses owned by Malcolm and said the presence of boys was a constant feature.
        
        He said he had also been present at National Party gatherings at which Malcolm was referred to with disparaging dark humour.
        
        “Those jokes were off the backs of kids he had abused,” he told the Herald. He said he believed there was knowledge of the allegations among National Party MPs at the time.
        
        More people have come forward because of the reports
        
        Yet the publication of those claims in a social media post last week following Malcolm’s death has already prompted others to come forward, according to a friend of the family, a private investigator, who first published the allegations.
        
        Article
        
        But hey, it’s just an attack by the media……
        
        Hypocrites who continue to bring up the labour youth camp, Darren Hughes, even a former pm’s husband would rather this is covered and silenced.
        
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        September 17, 2024 4:48pm
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      So it’s quite normal then for a newspaper to publish detail of alleged offenses before they are brought before a court and also omit minor detail in their earlier pieces such as the fact that police chose not to proceed with charges following earlier complaint investigations in the 1990’s – despite the paper having this information before they published their initial “reveal” as they put it. Not making any judgment here either way myself but Stuffs behaviour sure looks like a kangaroo court on the face of it.
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350416236/predator-ex-national-mp-investigated-least-three-times-over-alleged-child-sex
      
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      September 17, 2024 9:55am
      - JimBobJoe
        
        Kinda impinging on Malcolms Mana wouldnt you say? Given the Ellis case, Malcolms family could sue if they feel so inclined especially if the complaints were investigated and dismissed while he was alive
        
        Would be funny if Te Stuff were sued using tikanga as a vehicle….
        
        Note:: I have no opinion on Aussie Malcom and his activities as I havent read the article or ever heard rumours he was a possible kiddie fiddler. Just pointing out that being dead is no longer a means of open slather character assaination given the Ellis case and the courts ruling
        
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        September 17, 2024 11:40am
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        JBJ – the Ellis case crossed my mind when reading the second article – doubt if it crossed stuffs as too lateral to their clickbait imperative.
        
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        September 17, 2024 1:55pm
      - Burtland
        
        JbJ – he might need to be part maori for tikanga to apply …
        
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        September 17, 2024 9:07pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Do people ever “come forward” falsely to “help” the cause?
      
      Would that be possible?
      
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      September 17, 2024 9:55pm
      - Ghost
        
        Have you read the articles?
        
        One of the people is a former rugby coach who used to coach boys rugby with him. The coach went to the police and Child Youth and Family Services in the 1990’s to report concerns he had with his behaviour.
        
        I’d expect there are many survivors out there
        
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        September 17, 2024 10:31pm
      - Ghost
        
        Oh and just a look at a current case where a political figure was found guilty of abusing the boys involved in that case. No one came forward with fake stories to further the cause.
        
        Here’s a statement from the survivor of Malcom
        
        “The abuse has affected my mental health. I’ve made numerous suicide attempts. Memories of the abuse still affect me. I’ve found it very hard to have any form of connection and relationship with other people. Because of the abuse, I find I’m waiting for people to hurt me.”
        
        Funny thing kiwblog. Anti trans and drag because people think they are grooming kids. A politician sexually abused children and silence from most, defending from some, attacking the media from some. Sick. And lots of downvoting from the precious bigots who go on and on a out cases that have happened with labour and the greens, but the moment it involves a right politician , silence, and abuse the media for reporting it. What sort of moron even thinks a family should sue the media for reporting this. Oh the same sort of moron that would be egging it on if it was a labour or greens my involved. The same kind of moron that would scream cover up if it was a labour youth camp and not reported.
        
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        September 18, 2024 12:05am
- rouppe
  
  In the news today is that Astoria is opening another location on the parliamentary precinct.
  
  Apparently Astoria is know as the place careers were ended when “In 2017, former broadcaster-turned-RNZ executive Carol Hirschfield met then Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran for a coffee at Astoria.”
  
  No mention of it being a Labour minister, you just have to know…
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:31am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Aussie Malcolm left government in 1984, 40 years ago. I don’t know that he retained a role in the National Party thereafter. I would have said that most people in NZ today will have known the name via his immigration firm, rather than anything he did alongside Rob Muldoon (KB an aberration, of course).
  
  The crimes of which he is accused are terrible, notwithstanding.
  
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  September 17, 2024 12:21pm
Scooter

On an X comment it asks if anyone has any suggestions as to why Labour haven’t given Hipkins the boot, after the latest dismal polls. I would say they are waiting till 2026 for Jacinda’s resurrection. If Kamala wins and Cindy plays a bigger role, she will be a shoe in. Sorry I just woke from a bad dream.
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September 17, 2024 8:11am
- RoboRob
  
  In 2025 Hipkins will be replaced by Kieran McAnulty. He will reside over the party into 2026, when he will be dumped, just prior to election, and replaced by ….. Tova O’brian who will be fleeing the recently bankrupted Stuff.
  
  There you go, thats my bold prediction.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:55am
  - Paulus
    
    Nah ! Labour has to have a woman leading again as they only “succeeded” with a woman on top, Clark and Ardern.
    And New Zealand appears now to be led with many top jobs by women, who are the best people for the jobs of course.
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:40pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Cindy left because she knew there was a thugs hatred towards her, several instances of prop telling her she is not welcome in their business, the harshest was the guy at Tarras, he said you are not welcome here, you have ruined a huge number of my friends businesses, you have ruined farming around here and she was there with a large security detail
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:45am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Even though she is not with us, she is still desperate for power.
  Please go back to your dream and correct it. Stop scaring us.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:54am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    She won’t get it here, and she knows it
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:15pm
  - Paulus
    
    Understand she now living in Boston, Mass USA – let’s hope she stays there, but are we to assume she has a Green Card to work there, or just still a visitor?
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:44pm
- greybeard
  
  I see that Hipkins is off to the UK to attend a Labour Conference: he is obviously trying to get as much paid mileage as possible before his inevitable dumping.
  ( He said he was going to stay with a friend in order to save taxpayer money ! )
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:08am
  - Souvlaki
    
    That ‘friend’ will be the infamous Darren Hughes no doubt…..they can play the below ( apt ) song, dreaming about “The Good Times”….(I’m alluding to the halcyon days of Anette King’s flat & Goff’s tenure as leader) 😉
    
    https://youtu.be/1fnjaW_3alA
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:17am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yesterday’s poll will mirror intervals that have not been leaked for months, Mr 12% is falling for stupidity like apologising for Luxon rightfully kicking councils up the as, bitching about Māori wards having a democratic right, and lying about things like cancer drugs and police beat numbers, he is officially dead man walking
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:40am
    - Mr Nobody NZ
      
      Considering last nights polls I wonder if he really wants to be heading overseas. Who would be surprised for him to return to find himself out of a job?
      
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      September 17, 2024 3:09pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      Brave move going overseas to hang out with a UK PM who is going to let pensioners freeze to death this northern winter. Isn’t overseas trips the time for rivals to mobilise to roll leaders?
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:59pm
  - Paulus
    
    He wants his Airmiles and perks as much as possible, before he gets dumped.
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:45pm
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    I’m struggling with this act of charity by Hipkins. He’s not in the government and is going over to another country for a conference held by a political party. He is invited only because he’s the (temporary) leader of a sister party. There is no connection/benefit/impact for New Zealand.
    Why does he think the NZ taxpayer could be on the hook for any of it?
    Maybe it’s covered by the residual travel perks he gets as a former (temporary) PM but this is effectively a trip as a private citizen. Chris, your entitlement is showing.
    
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    September 17, 2024 5:57pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Climate criminal
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:14pm
- MCōs
  
  I see David Seymour and Act are more popular than the Māori Party and their leaders so that’s something
  Otherwise they’re the least popular people in parliament apart from Darleen Tana
  
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  September 17, 2024 1:38pm
  - Grunter
    
    Winston 1st are behind ACT also….
    
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    September 17, 2024 2:22pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Not true
      
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      September 17, 2024 3:16pm
Cassandra

It seems to me that the King Movement is playing a long and coordinated game. Although they need The Crown we’ll eventually become a republic. In what form is anyone’s guess. (Disclaimer: it ain’t broke so don’t fixit). Kuini Wai ti po will be 57 in 30 years – perfectly placed to be NZ’s first President.
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September 17, 2024 8:11am
- AitchW
  
  I wonder if being both queen of Tainui and head of state might not be a conflict of interest. Perhaps one of our resident constitutional lawyers might offer an opinion?
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:22am
  - Cassandra
    
    Of course it would at present. But under a new arrangement? With white flight to Australia? I hope not but I think there’s some strategic planning going on in Maoridom. Of course Ngapuhi and Ngai Tahu might have quite different plans.
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:00am
  - imalwaysright
    
    They are no more than an informal association of civilians.
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:02am
kowtow

Bad taste , perhaps but how fancy dress can lead to a conviction is wrong .UK.

Could it happen here.

‘A prankster who dressed up as the Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi for Halloween now faces being locked up.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13853797/Prankster-dressed-Manchester-Arena-bomber-Salman-Abedi-Halloween-prison.html
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September 17, 2024 8:13am
- peterwn
  
  Given the background of bombings and terrorism in UK in recent times it is not surprising that the authorities do not have a sense of humour with regard to such things. It is rather like someone calling out ‘Hi Jack!’ to a friend at an airport.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:31am
  - kowtow
    
    Halloween coming up .
    
    I anticipate waves of arrests , convictions and imprisonment of any dressed as The Grim Reaper , given the shocking level of blade crime , Nightmare on Elm Street types given the amount of attacks , again with blades against women in their homes etc
    
    And no going to a fancy dress party and being stupid at airports are not reasonable comparisons.
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:28pm
- Debsta
  
  Apparently poor taste and mean words cause more harm than sexual violence and physical assault in this crazy fucked world we currently live in.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:26am
- imalwaysright
  
  That was the time for Britain to crack down on the muslim extremists. Instead they got the wet apologist Chris Martin bleating “Don’t look back in anger”.
  Fuck that.
  If someone killing our kids doesn’t get us angry, we don’t deserve them.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:03am
- MCōs
  
  He pleaded guilty and he hasn’t been sentenced yet.
  ‘Faces being locked up’ is probably the maximum sentence
  When he does get sentenced the Daily Mail will be too busy with some other Shock Horror exposé to report he got community service or something
  
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  September 17, 2024 1:54pm
imalwaysright

This is great stuff from Erica Stanford on the implementation of the curricula.
A straight talking , motivated minister.
(The interviewer isn’t quite up to it and gets schooled)
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/09/16/were-not-rushing-this-stanford-on-new-maths-curriculum/
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September 17, 2024 8:14am
- RoboRob
  
  Erica should be the National party leader. She is clear, articulate and willing to stand up for her policies regardless of union and media attacks. Luxon could learn a lot from her performance.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:58am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Likewise Simeon Brown – he’s doing very well.
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:14pm
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Keep it up Erica! Tell it exactly how it is and do everything you can to improve learning outcomes for the kids, they are our country’s future.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:08am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Erica is great. One day she may a future prime minister.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I saw that. The commie unions want to hold it back. Erica wants to get kids educated especially with math. Why would the unions not want this? Losing control?
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:21am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Yes, the unions are pissed off because they can’t have a 10 year long gravy train of conferences, conversations and teacher only days.
    Not so long ago we would have been arranging secure accommodation for these types.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:38am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Secure, like hinaki.
      
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      September 17, 2024 1:48pm
    - Paulus
      
      Teacher Only Days are a Union Anathema and should be cancelled, so the Teachers can at least have another day to teach.
      
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      September 17, 2024 3:49pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Normally the unions block education changes to ‘protect’ their clients (the teachers) from any kind of quality assessment or additional work. The unions might talk about doing things to help our children, but the truth is they exist only for the benefit of the teachers.
    
    I believe in this case it is a mixture of the above and politics. A new curriculum means additional work for teachers. They have to at least read the docs. More importantly, for the unions, they seem concerned that the changes might be a political win for National. If the changes come in and outcomes measurably improve before the next election, that would be good for National and bad for Labour. If they can delay implementation by a year or more, then this win could be avoided.
    
    Notice how the politics of stopping National getting a ‘win’ before the next election is more important then improving the education of the kids?
    
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    September 17, 2024 11:01am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Rob
      I would say that the union sees their members as a captive audience and therefore their efforts and motivation are directed solely to the benefit of the union.
      The unions existence is more dependant on politicians than members.
      
      And you are correct. The kids are irrelevant .
      
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      September 17, 2024 12:32pm
      - Paulus
        
        Union Leaders get paid increase at the same increase rate they get their members, so that’s what they are actually after.
        
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        September 17, 2024 3:51pm
    - AitchW
      
      The unions are quite simply an arm of the Labour Party. When has ANY of the teachers unions taken action to improve the lot of the children they teach?
      The union opposes allowing retired teachers to be employed as relievers. Why? Because, that’s why!
      I’m confident that a significant number of teachers dislike their union but are reluctant to speak up to avoid the staff room bullies.
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:52pm
- Swifty
  
  What a breath of fresh air compared to Tinetti.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:45am
Conservatarian

“Boy, I hope all those nasty Republicans don’t politicise our attempts to have Trump murdered”
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September 17, 2024 8:19am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I certainly hope that’s tongue in cheek
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:47am
- RoboRob
  
  CNN/ABC/MSNBC
  Trump needs to tone down his rhetoric about people eating cats in Springfield. Its his own fault people are shooting at him.
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:03am
  - Conservatarian
    
    “Trump’s skirt was too short”
    
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    September 17, 2024 12:37pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rubbish, after the debate and the rejection of the mayor in this topic, several people in Springfield have come forward to say their pets have disappeared. Take a wild guess why ffs
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:18pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Just in case learning and doing science diverts an individual from “other ways of knowing”, Auckland University has introduced a compulsory course on indigenous ways of knowing.

https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2024/09/16/ideological-indoctrination-of-new-zealand-science-majors-a-bizarre-required-course/
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September 17, 2024 8:22am
- rouppe
  
  Sounds a bit like that formerly mandatory real estate course
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:33am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  I wonder about the impact of this decision on enrolments by much-needed overseas students, AKA cash-cows.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:54am
- James Stephenson
  
  I can see some of this stuff coming down the pipe in my near future and I have small experiment planned.
  
  How interested will the “other ways of knowing” people be in knowing that Odin, who sacrificed one of his eyes to gain wisdom, has two ravens who represent thought and memory? Will they realise that Norse mythology has a lot to tell us about education in modern New Zealand…?
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:01am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Works for this Deity. May Mjolnir strike the unbelievers down!
    
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    September 17, 2024 5:19pm
- Swifty
  
  The highjacking of our civic institutions to further left-wing political indoctrination.
  
  Will National just sit idly by and allow this misuse of taxpayer money?
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:16am
- Swifty
  
  Where are all our science philosophers? Why haven’t they come out against this? Do they in fact support this move?
  
  Science isn’t (just) knowledge. It is a process. A method. A means to go about rigorously proving or disproving a hypothesis.
  
  That business with the whale oil on kauri trees wasn’t within a bull’s roar of science. It’s was the opposite. It started with a conclusion, that because whales and kauri are brothers bringing them back in contact will cure what ails kauri.
  
  Where was the method so that others can repeat the experiment? What was the rigorous process? What and where are the controls? We’re other kauri close by not treated with whale oil to see what happened to them and so results could be compared against the trial group?
  
  FFS. The world has gone mad.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:45am
- Eastlander
  
  New Zealand already looks less and less attractive to prospective foreign students with every passing year. How much more must be sacrificed on the altar of Maori chauvinism?
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:45am
  - imalwaysright
    
    It also looks less attractive to investment and self supporting immigrants.
    Who wants to settle or invest where a disparate group of self appointed leaders of a casual association of residents can impose charges and decide the form of your settlement all the while charging exorbitant fees?
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:26pm
    - Eastlander
      
      Indeed – they don’t know how things are when they get here and it comes as a great shock when they find out.
      
      Even liberally-minded non-white migrants often develop a deep contempt for Maori, scorning them as the willful authors of their own misfortune.
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:34pm
  - Paulus
    
    Much more !
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:53pm
Tomtoddy

Robert MacCulloch has pointed out the hypocrisy of former PM, Ardern who is running up airmiles giving the finger to attempts by her green mates to ban emissions and her own lofty proclamations. She has been to Italy twice, Chicago, back home for a wedding and possibly more.

The elites are exempt apparently.
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September 17, 2024 8:23am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Prof MacCulloch does a fine job indeed. Pointing out her hypocricy is easy. Getting our MSM to do so is impossible.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:38am
- RoboRob
  
  Just standard lefty behaviour. Do as I say not as I do.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:59am
- pdm
  
  Maybe anything Al Gore can do Jacinda Ardern can do more often and at greater cost.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:37am
- Flossie
  
  Just like the sanctimonious Duke of Sussex and his wife. Who coincidentally are friends of Jacinda Ardern.
  
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  September 17, 2024 9:39am
peterwn

In USA the bastion of free enterprise the Federal Government owns both airports adjacent to Washington DC. It obviously recognises the strategic importance of the airports and does not want to see them disestablished or compromised. Similarly when Sydney Airport was privatised the Federal Government granted a 99 year lease over the land to the airport owners so the Federal Government always retains control of the site. So goodness knows why the NZ Government did not retain control over Wellington Airport when it sold its two-thirds portion years ago. So if the Council sells its remaining one third then the airport could be at risk of being shut down and the land used for housing etc. This would cause a serious problem for the Council and the Government since the airport is pretty well irreplaceable, the only alternative sites being in the Wairarapa or the Manawatu.
So the WCC shareholding provides the only ‘anchor’ that would prevent the closure of the airport in the future. Instead of selling all its airport shares perhaps the Council could sell some of its shares but retain a 21% holding and then try and strong-arm the Government into buying the remainder of its shareholding.
Another problem with any proposed sale is despite all the promises in the world, the Council will probably succumb to the temptation of the pile of cash and start to spend it rather than invest it in diversified securities as it is promising. This happened following the sale of the former Municipal Electricity Department. Again it was crazy to lose control of a critical asset such as the lines and cables. There would be no way that the French would allow Paris’s electricity network to be privatised.
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September 17, 2024 8:26am
artemisia

Taranaki’s largest tertiary education provider proposing cuts to jobs and courses

One of many organisations managing the budget now we have a government requiring value for money and not tolerant of financial mismanagement.

Seems likely there is not enough demand for some courses. Maybe students can relocate to other educators as students have done from time immemorial. Maybe ‘basket weaving’ is no longer must-have du jour.

Staff are said to be confused and angry, dismayed and shocked, but they have the option to wait a bit as consultation progresses and information becomes available. These are staff we are talking about, so wouldn’t they be expected to act a bit grown up?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/528154/taranaki-s-largest-tertiary-education-provider-proposing-cuts-to-jobs-and-courses
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September 17, 2024 8:32am
- rouppe
  
  The cuts are being proposed in cookery, in food and beverage, in art and design, in automotive engineering, in mechanical engineering, in construction trades skills, business and administration, information technology and in te reo.
  
  I predict the ones at each end will survive, and the ones we really need, the ones in the middle, will suffer the biggest cuts
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:37am
- Blog-aholic
  
  When the expected train filled with gravy doesn’t arrive overfed types usually cry like babies……
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:40am
- kowtow
  
  Interesting how te msm go on and on about the loss of non jobs and yet there is relative silence around the loss of real and well paying jobs that also underpin the wider economy .
  
  methanex for example.
  
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  September 17, 2024 8:57am
  - artemisia
    
    Unions are often front and centre of complaints. Fair enough, it’s their day job. But they do get more than their fair share of column inches.
    
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    September 17, 2024 2:28pm
- cmm
  
  Many of the demand seems artificially inflated by yoofs required to occasionally sign up for courses so that their dole doesn’t get cut.
  
  One of my sons did a course at Ara (was CPIT) in Christchurch. They only just had enough people signed up to start the course. After 3 weeks about half the students dropped out but the course continued once started:
  * Win for the students (the useless and disruptive people dropped out).
  * Win for Ara – they got to run the course.
  * Win for the drop outs – they met their dole obligations.
  * Loss for the taxpayer.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:01am
  - artemisia
    
    Yep, I have mentioned here before young family member did a trades foundation half year course. More than 20 started, 4 finished and went on to apprenticeships. Some did not last the week. Yes most if not all required to attend by WINZ.
    
    I don’t know what the answer is, but better selection by WINZ would help – ability and attitude. Plus some decent parenting.
    
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    September 17, 2024 11:06am
    - AitchW
      
      It’s pointless for WINZ to send no hopers on courses they don’t want to do with no consequences for non attendance. Huge waste of time and taxpayers money.
      It’s a bit like sending unwilling unemployed to pick fruit. Said unemployed don’t want to be there and the orchard owner doesn’t want them there.
      The few fruit they do pick are likely to be damaged or unripe and they cause resentment among the pickers who do want them .
      
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      September 17, 2024 6:01pm
- pdm
  
  Remember those Hip Hop and how to play Gof courses (among others) under the much lauded Clark government.
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:49am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    If they had kept up the Hip Hop we could have won a Gold Medal!
    
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    September 17, 2024 5:22pm
Conservatarian

LA Times addresses criticism of ABC News’ moderation in last week’s POTUS debate….with a glowing puff piece on Linsey Davis (the black chick):

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-09-11/linsey-davis-abc-news-harris-trump-debate

“The critiques of her and Muir’s approach predictably fell along partisan lines. Harris supporters cheered it, while Trump’s acolytes on Fox News and other conservative outlets said the duo was piling on the former president and letting his Democratic opponent off easy.

Davis acknowledged that she and Muir could not nail every misstatement. But they did study each candidate’s body of work ahead of time and had an idea of what to expect.”

Ahh, that must be why absolutely no attempt was made to fact check the lies of Harris.
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September 17, 2024 8:32am
mandk

This is what happens when you open the door to Muslim immigration:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xjBl0G35fUs

Watch and learn NZ.
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September 17, 2024 9:09am
- Swifty
  
  That gentleman has some respect for the law of the land now, doesn’t he?
  
  It’s the law that will keep him confined for the rest of his natural life.
  
  See you later Anjem. Thanks for playing.
  
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  September 17, 2024 12:52pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

A new twist in the assassination discussions.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/new-hampshire-libertarian-party-shares-and-deletes-post-that-suggests-assassinating-harris-would-be-heroic/ar-AA1qFBMy?
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September 17, 2024 9:10am
- RoboRob
  
  IF the story is even true, isn’t it just the perfect diversion away from the fact that someone attempted to assassinate Trump for a second time in two months?
  
  How convenient that the media will get to focus on the Libertarian party (of whackos) and avoid Trump getting any positive media or bump from this.
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:09am
- RoboRob
  
  I dont normally post links but the satire post sums it up pretty nicely….
  
  ‘Democrats Accuse Trump Of Inciting Further Violence By Not Dying’
  
  https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-accuse-trump-of-inciting-further-violence-by-not-dying
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:14am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Even though it is the Bee, this really is how the crazy Democrats are.
    Desperate and dangerous – anything could happen.
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:52pm
NZL Fusion

Who is replacing Simon and James in the afternoon?
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September 17, 2024 9:20am
Jack5

Migration issue runs hot in Germany …

Germany has just signed an agreement to take migrants from Kenya, with no limit specified on number.

At the same time it is tightening border checks on people arising from the “Schengen Area”. This comprises 29 European countries (the UK isn’t one) that abolished border controls at their mutual borders.

Meanwhile the far-Right party, Alternative for Germany (AFD), is on the rise in German regional elections.

Last Tuesday, the second round of high-level German talks on migration policy in Berlin ended without agreement, reports the German TV and radio service, Deutsche Welle.

The opposition Christian Democrats party said it wouldn’t attend further meetings with the three-party governing coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats.

The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, defended his Government’s migration policy in the German parliament emphasising the need to attract skilled foreigners.

“There is no country in the world with a shrinking working population that has economic growth. That is the truth we are confronted with,” Scholz said in the Bundestag.

On Sunday, Brandenburg will be the third former East German electorate to vote. An ethnic-African, Cameroon-born woman, Adeline Abimnwi Awemo, of the Christian Democrat Union, will be the only non-White candidate in the Lusatia region.

Awemo says the only racism she has experienced in 22 years in Cottbus, where she lives, was in July when a woman attacked her while she was hanging election posters.

She moved from Kumba in Cameroon to Cottbus in 2002 to study at the Brandenburg University of Technology.
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September 17, 2024 9:31am
Bobba Fret

So this guy Singe supplies at least three guns illegally. One of which is used to kill two people in the CBD. And the judge gives him 12 months home detention!!!!!!
Perhaps it is time for judge Nevin Dawson to be retired.
No wonder we have a problem with crime in NZ.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/auckland-cbd-shooting-man-who-helped-move-gun-to-black-market-matu-reid-later-used-in-rampage-sentenced/L2KTFWKAKBHHDMLRSU7FKHMFJA/
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September 17, 2024 9:38am
All_on_Red

Well the sun is shining in Devonport and no Cats are missing.
Its funny the way some events can trigger a Nation.
Cats (allegedly) and Geese being eaten is a rather unusual way to highlight the issues of how mass immigration can hurt a community.
But it appears to be having quite the impact.
‘The Aug. 26 phone call to the Springfield police related to Haitian goose hunting at a local park was one of two incidents recorded by Ohio authorities, according to the state Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).”
https://thefederalist.com/2024/09/16/ohio-department-of-natural-resources-confirms-second-springfield-phone-call-related-to-haitian-goose-hunting/
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September 17, 2024 10:06am
- Conservatarian
  
  Lib journo sitting in Brooklyn apartment petting her cat rings up Springfield city spokesman:
  
  Q: “Are Haitians eating cats? People are saying that Haitians are eating cats.”
  A: “I’ve not personally seen it. Also, people that don’t live here would be angry if I say yes.”
  
  Lib journo shrugs and says to her boss “Well, I tried.”
  
  Lib journo cuts and pastes previous article: Trump falsely claims thing, we fact checked, he is indeed Pinocchio, again.
  
  Lib editor reviews article: Solid work, and I will also add in that Trump deserves to be shot.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:25am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  One Youtube clip I saw had officials saying there had been no reports of cats, dogs, and geese being killed. Then there is a guy (face blurred out) walking down the path with a dead goose in each hand.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:27am
  - MCōs
    
    So what
    You do know the geese hunting is legal in NZ in season for example?
    
    5 15
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    September 17, 2024 10:31am
    - Colville
      
      No season for geese…they are feral pests.
      
      Anytime, anywhere, any how!
      
      7 1
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      September 17, 2024 10:48am
      - Paulus
        
        Tauranga Canada Geese are a huge stinking mess and the Council tell me,, in writing, that it is nothing to do with them, as they are a pest and can be shot anytime BUTTTTT !!!
        Am told that they make terrible cooking and stink like hell in doing so
        
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        September 17, 2024 4:06pm
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Are the ducks at Christchurch botanical gardens fair game too?
      Between May & July, of course.
      
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      September 17, 2024 10:57am
    - RoboRob
      
      The ‘so what’ is that the police cheif and media all rubbished the claims and took the micky out of Trump for saying this is happening and low and behold it might be.
      
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      September 17, 2024 11:11am
    - Conservatarian
      
      You’re deliberately missing the point. The city authority, like all others, encourages geese, ducks and other waterfowl to come into the urban areas to beautify the area and make it more “natural”. The birds are an attraction for the people of the city, especially children and families. They’re something of a city “asset”.
      
      The Haitians are not paying for a hunting license for example. It’s more like vandalism, except they’re harvesting food for free. Just walking in, snapping necks, and putting them into their pots for dinner. Don’t worry if the geese or ducks never come back.
      
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      September 17, 2024 11:12am
    - Jack5
      
      Not protected in NZ are Canada geese and other wild geese ( both “white geese” and “grey geese”).
      
      However, you need a “small game hunting permit” to hunt them on Conservation land.
      
      https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/things-to-do/hunting/permits-and-licences/small-game-hunting-permit/
      
      4 1
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      September 17, 2024 11:34am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      What has that got to do with the price of fish?
      The video was filmed near Springfield.
      
      6 6
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      September 17, 2024 11:36am
      - All_on_Red
        
        As usual MCos misses the point…
        The Geese and Cats are symptomatic of the wider distress being experienced by the 60,000 Residents of Springfield when you insert 20,000 Haitians into their community.
        
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        September 17, 2024 11:41am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I have a friend in UK who told me a story about a weekend walk a decade back in the midlands country side along a canalside where he encountered a group of wet and muddy eastern European migrants walking along each carrying a couple of freshly murdered waterfowl.
    
    Dumb westerners just letting all that food wander around unmolested.
    
    You can hardly blame poor migrants trying to improve their diet at zero cost. But eating people’s pets is not a victimless crime.
    
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    September 17, 2024 11:36am
    - gravedodger
      
      50 years ago anywhere on a NZ Coastline abundant shellfish on every rock now much rocky coastline resembles a moonscape with rocks bereft of any life.
      I wonder what happened, climate change I suppose.
      
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      September 17, 2024 3:43pm
  - Hard Cheese
    
    Why do you keep babbling on about geese? Trump said dogs, cats and family pets. There is no intersection between those three things and geese.
    
    3 8
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    September 17, 2024 12:27pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Springfield has run out of pets. There are 20,000 Haitian illegals.
      
      8 5
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      September 17, 2024 1:56pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      The ‘intersection’ is the issues the Haitians have brought to Springfield and what happens when you dump a lot of migrants from a different culture on a community
      Thats what Trump and Vance are pointing out.
      Do try to keep up
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:47pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I once ate some cooked goose as a child. Not very pleasant.
    
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    September 17, 2024 10:03pm
- RichardX
  
  How does anything about geese become a response to Trump saying “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in — they are eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
  
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  September 17, 2024 12:14pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Richard, read what I wrote.
    It was a Youtube clip I saw. That was stated in the clip, not by me.
    It was narrated in the clip. Go find it coz I am not.
    
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    September 17, 2024 1:59pm
    - RichardX
      
      Otto, read what I wrote.
      How is anything about geese a response to Trump’s debate statement that “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in — they are eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
      
      Nothing to do with your clip but thanks for engaging after repeatedly telling me that you wouldn’t.
      
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      September 17, 2024 2:41pm
      - MAGA, Mostly Aryans on Government Assistance
        
        Kiwiblogs resident racists answered JD Vance’s dog whistles and they came running with their tongues out and drooling with excitement…next minute JD Vance admits he made it all up…for attention the
        sad little painted clown.
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hATLew-xxOg
        
        This is the crap it takes for MAGA to win an election?
        
        The sooner MAGA is purged from the republican party the better.
        
        1 5
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        September 17, 2024 5:16pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        The ‘geese’ being eaten are part of the problems the Haitians have brought to Springfield
        You lefties really are quite uninformed.
        
        4 3
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        September 17, 2024 5:49pm
MCōs

The Manchester City F C is in some sort of strive with the League and a hearing started yesterday at the London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre, which will go on for weeks.
Their KC charges £5000/hr, which is more than I ever earned in a week
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September 17, 2024 10:27am
- Don Beckett
  
  So what are they actually striving for ? 😆
  
  7 3
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  September 17, 2024 10:42am
  - kevn
    
    Don… Too much striving could cause the club strife.
    
    4 1
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    September 17, 2024 12:31pm
- peterwn
  
  A prosecutor was trying to discredit an expert witness and finally asked him what he was being paid. In frustration the witness said that with whet he earned he could not afford the sort of expensive suit that the prosecutor was wearing. Judge then told the prosecutor to get on with the cross examination.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:43am
- Philview
  
  There is a cap on what a club can spend in a year which is necessary when the likes of the Saudi Government owns clubs. I assume legal fees aren’t included in the calculation.
  
  6 1
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  September 17, 2024 11:04am
- plc
  
  Years….
  
  1 0
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  September 17, 2024 11:21am
- JimBobJoe
  
  City are alleged to have benefited from inflated related party sponsorships, illegal payments and other infractions against EPL financial rules plus multiple charges of refusing to cooperate into said charges.
  
  City were convicted by UEFA of similar ccharges under UEFA European tournament rules but had the conviction over turned on appeal to CAS as the the arbiters rule the charges were not able to be tabled due to statue of limitations due to age of charges… I.e time expiry.
  
  Such time expiry is not part of EPL rules…
  
  Prediction: City will cop a fine, no points penaltues and no loss of titles after a long and expensive process ending in a no fault settlement agreement as the EPL cant afford to carry the proceedings on for a long period…. (Citys owner has bottomless pockets and has been reported to be happy to undertake lawfare against the EPL forever if necessary)
  
  City, imho based on the Der Spegiel articles, have been caught but it will result in no consequences and has effectively killed the EPL as a league in the long term
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:52am
Maggy Wassilieff

Wellington’s cycle network…. Future & current pathways.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-09-2024/windbag-how-wellingtons-bike-network-has-grown-in-three-maps?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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September 17, 2024 10:48am
- Taieri
  
  The first comment under that article says it all:
  
  “In 150 years bikes since the penny farthing, bikes have never been found satisfactory for business delivery purposes and only been a fringe experience of leisure, and last-mile solution like couriers and food stalls. 150 years! Current usage in Wellington hovers in the 2% range. “Doubling biking” has really only meant 1% to 2%.”
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:09am
  - peterwn
    
    ?????? Bikes were historically used by police, telegram delivery boys, etc. Bikes were used by some inner city couriers some years ago presumably for document delivery, but the number of documents requiring urgent physical delivery has probably dropped off in recent times.
    
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    September 17, 2024 12:48pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

American students need a shakeup real quick.
How can they live the American Dream when they chant “Death to America”?
Soldiers turning in their graves.

https://conservativeadvocacy.com/why-are-we-funding-students-who-wish-to-see-their-own-country-burn/?
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September 17, 2024 10:57am
- kowtow
  
  Shouting that is treason or indeed insurrectionist , where’s te media paahti condemnation and constant referral thereto , as they do for anything marginally relating to J6.
  
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  September 17, 2024 11:59am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Different when the left do it.
    
    5 4
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    September 17, 2024 2:02pm
plc

Over the past week I’ve been travelling thru Japan – both large metros, provincial towns and rural areas.

One of the most noticeable differences with NZ, is the more relaxed approach to Health and Safety, and personal responsibility. A bridge may be a piece of granite, a series of stepping stones etc. No guard rails, no signs telling me that if I fall off I might hurt myself. On suburban streets there are 2ft deep uncovered concrete gutters – no guard rails. In NZ I dread to thing the anuerisms Worksafe would have.

NZ has really lost something since the HSE Act. We are overregulated with no capacity for personal responsibility. NZ leading the race to the bottom.

Bikes share footpaths and roads and this country 24x the population of NZ seems to cope
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September 17, 2024 11:00am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

FBI: Oh look, over there, a squirrel.

https://babylonbee.com/news/fbi-attempts-to-distract-from-old-trump-assassination-attempt-with-new-trump-assassination-attempt?
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September 17, 2024 11:08am
Swifty

Your neighbour, friend or family member asks you to come over and look at the new set of 7-step concrete stairs they’ve put out in the garden, replacing a set previously there.

You look and casually enquire as to what it cost them – thinking it might run to a few thousand or so.

They answer with a smile, “Oh, it wasn’t too bad, just over a quarter of a million dollars.”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/disgraceful-auckland-mayor-wayne-brown-slams-council-staff-over-263000-milford-beach-stair-cost/CWLG6QE3GNCAJBBIGRBO3GKD2U/

What would you think of them?
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September 17, 2024 11:09am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  4 sets of stairs so just under $66,000 each!
  You don’t need a design ffs. 8 guys could have done this in one weekend as a hobby.
  Who signs this sort of shit off? DCM. Fired, FIRED!!!!
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:10pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes Steve – that’s what I thought when I saw the article. Three form workers, and 2 concrete places could have done each one – as you say – in a weekend. But then another day, a couple of days later to strip the formwork & tidy up.
    Labour as stated $6800,
    3 cub.mtrs concrete & reo $2000
    = $8800 per set of steps. Say $10,00 to include design etc. – no engineering required.
    $ 40,000 for the whole 4.
    BUT – council inspection, engineers design, health & satfety including traffic control – how much, I wonder ?
    Of course – $200,000 – so total = $240,000.
    They overchaged by $23,000. 😆
    
    6 1
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    September 17, 2024 5:06pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Ryan Routh.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/ryan-routh-s-twitter-x-posts-reveal-his-politics-before-suspected-trump-assassination-attempt/ar-AA1qE9dF?

His son Oran Routh:

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/not-the-man-i-know-ryan-routh-isn-t-violent-but-does-hate-trump-reveals-son/ar-AA1qEa72?

More on Ryan Routh. He had a Go-Pro presumably to record what he was about to do.
Good thing someone photographed his car with rego number.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/ryan-routh-what-we-know-about-trump-shooting-suspect-caught-with-an-ak-47-and-a-gopro/ar-AA1qCPVm?
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September 17, 2024 12:06pm
vand

Re Ryan Routh
His son thinks all reasonable people hate Trump. The mindset of the woke who only do emotions/feelings.
The son also thinks his father’s actions are blown out of all proportion- No- his father wanted to blow Trumps’ s head of out of all proportion. That is attempted/ murder!
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September 17, 2024 12:31pm
kevn

SteveO… But but, he didn’t shoot. No prob then, a technicality.
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1835780949583523990
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September 17, 2024 12:35pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  He didn’t shoot, but he was seen and shat at by agents. He then took off. One clever person took a photo of his car and rego.
  Funny how shooters don’t like being shot at.
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:14pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Gee Steve, The agent must have had a pretty powerful shit to frighten him off – maybe it was the smell. 😆
    
    (I know, I know – gimme me hat’n’coat.)
    
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    September 17, 2024 5:09pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I have only seen that blatant typo this morning!
      I did proof read twice. I see it as an image according to the Doc.
      Never mind, it is what it is for me.
      
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      September 18, 2024 7:18am
ecco

Tory Whanau is interviewed by NZH. Says it’s so tough, she’s had to sell her car and cut back on her lifestyle. That’s despite earning $189k salary and a lotto win of $1.2m.

Thinks Wellington businesses are doing it tough because of public sector cuts. What about lack of parking and unused cycleways? What’s she doing about the lack of parking and the choking up of the city with cycleways?

She’s going to organise a couple of events for the city. That’s not where the problem is Tory. You are the problem. The fact that you had to sell your car, on that inflated salary, tells me you aren’t fit to run the multi billion dollar entity that is Wellington City Council.

Fun fact Tory – if you had invested that $1.2m you won on Lotto in 2002 in the US500 (long term average – 14%) it would now be worth $23m, and you probably wouldn’t be wanting to inflict your ineptness on the whole of Wellington, affecting the livelihoods of so many.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-mayor-tory-whanau-sells-car-to-help-pay-the-bills/VL6XFFRL5ZDOZDPVHTF5R6HDUY/
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September 17, 2024 1:16pm
- greybeard
  
  According to her blurb in Wikipedia, “Whanau’s stated policy platform was “Fixing our pipes; More warm, dry homes for all; More efficient public transport options; Mental health support, alcohol and harm reduction; Safer streets; Arts and culture revitalisation; Business support; Climate action.”
  
  Fixing our pipes: Fail, in a big way
  More warm, dry homes: Fail
  Mental Health support: Fail
  Alcohol & harm reduction ( I like this one, very apt ! ): Fail
  Safer streets: Fail
  Arts & culture revitalisation: Fail
  Business support: Worst failure of all
  Climate action: Fail
  
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  September 17, 2024 1:59pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    100% fail rate – good job!
    
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    September 18, 2024 7:20am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  If she can’t manage her own money how is she supposed to manage Wellington money?
  Hands up all those who voted for her.
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:16pm
- Eastlander
  
  I wanted her bank accounts rinsed but if she’s as bad with her own money as the ratepayers’ there might not be anything much to recover.
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:46pm
- cmm
  
  How did her mortgage “almost double” despite mortgage rates coming down?
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:56pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    ran out of cash so refinanced?
    
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    September 18, 2024 7:21am
- Paulus
  
  Wellington Mayor surely has a Council “freebee” car ?
  
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  September 17, 2024 4:19pm
- kevn
  
  ecco… What a grifter.
  
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  September 17, 2024 4:39pm
- nova
  
  It very much looks as if she sold her car as a result of buying a new townhouse in the city, so no longer needs it as she can now walk to work. And one can’t help but wonder if her rates bill is one of her larger expenses. I also suspect she was playing it up a bit to try and show that she has the same concerns as everyone else. The words she is quoted as using were a little odd, with “kind of help pay the bills” implying a lack of desperate need:
  
  “However I’ve just sold my car recently to kind of help pay the bills, I walk to work again, my mortgage rates have doubled in the past few years”
  
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  September 17, 2024 4:56pm
- MCōs
  
  It doesn’t pay to be honest about your personal finances in public
  
  The rates are astonishing
  My previous house in Ngaio is $7356 including unlimited water. My current house in Mangere Bridge is about $5000 including metered water.
  13° today in Auckland 9° in Wellington plus a stiff southerly
  
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  September 17, 2024 5:50pm
- Beach Haven expat
  
  Did the Herald ask her, since she’s won lotto and is on $190k, how her finances would look with the Greens’ wealth taxes on top?
  
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  September 17, 2024 6:12pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  “earning $189k salary and a lotto win of $1.2m”
  
  Which I’m thinking lends more credence to the idea that there is no God of the type that cares about the intricate affairs of humans.
  
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  September 17, 2024 10:08pm
ecco

Has anyone tried that Wellington rates calculator on the NZH? Laws was talking about it on The Platform. You plug in an address and it comes up with how much your rates will be in 2027/2028. Truly scary numbers.

If you can access it go on and give it a go with some of your friends and families’ addresses. Our old address was coming in at $14k now and $20k in 2027/2028.Wow.https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-rates-interactive-map-see-how-much-more-youll-be-paying-by-2028/NGJWXVNP35HSFBTFGFWFYDLW2I/

PS the NZH must be trying to grow it’s Wellington readership… so many clickbait/Wellington bashing articles lately…
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September 17, 2024 1:30pm
- cmm
  
  $14k to $20k….. HTF is that possible?
  We pay less than $4k in Christchurch and I thought that was steep.
  
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  September 17, 2024 2:54pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    I pay $13K in Chch……
    
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    September 17, 2024 3:10pm
  - cmm
    
    The bit I fail to understand is that Wellington ratepayers vote for a situation that gives them $14k to $20k rates. Why?
    
    How is anyone supposed to service over $1000 in rates a month and what do you get for it?
    I suppose some of this goes into subsidising train fares etc.
    
    In Chch we’re paying far less than that. There would be blood in the streets if we had $12000+ rates.
    
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    September 17, 2024 4:25pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Those on Super are doomed.
      
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      September 17, 2024 4:44pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Yep. Another reason why out of control dingbat councils should be booted by central govt.
        
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        September 17, 2024 10:11pm
    - kowtow
      
      I suspect a huge part of the problem is that non rate payers have the vote .
      
      That or the proverbial turkeys and Christmas.
      
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      September 17, 2024 5:10pm
      - MCōs
        
        Where do you think landlords get the money to pay the rates?
        
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        September 17, 2024 6:31pm
    - Eastlander
      
      Nobody voted for anything. Council staff were eagerly anticipating the day when water infrastructure wouldn’t be their problem anymore and they could spend their entire budget on monuments to themselves.
      
      Then despite three waters being canned they refused to scale back their ambitions. Since council staff are ‘planners’ and ‘managers’ who don’t know anything and measure their success by the amount of money they spend they took it for granted that everything they wanted was essential.
      
      Also, they subscribe to the crudest sort of Keynesianism whereby government spending of any sort stimulates the economy, so in their minds any restriction on their actions is harmful ‘austerity’.
      
      Finally they have started to realise that the law as it stands allows them to tax without limit and usurp the position of the central government, a wish they openly announced in that survey by the New Zealand Initiative. This is a particularly attractive notion to supporters of the former government, not least because rates can act as the wealth tax they were never able to implement.
      
      This last issue is the most pressing – any organisation would like more funding and power for itself, and councils have figured out that at present there’s nothing stopping claiming as much for themselves as they want.
      
      Christchurch council staff will do the same things if they see Wellington and other rebellious local authorities getting away with it, you may depend on it.
      
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      September 17, 2024 6:01pm
    - MCōs
      
      My neice in Cashmere, Chch pays $4,531.64 plus water. A bit more than here.
      
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      September 17, 2024 6:29pm
      - marcw
        
        Unless she uses excess water above the generous quarterly allocation, the rates already include the charge for water use. There is no separate water bill in Christchurch.
        
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        September 17, 2024 7:02pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350419046/wellington-mayor-tory-whanau-now-walks-work-after-selling-car-pay-bills

In 2003, Whanau won 1.4 million in Lotto, when house prices in Wellington were averaging 275K

She now has a 180K job, No kids, single, and can’t make ends meet……

I think I may have discovered the source of Wellington’s financial mismanagement.
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September 17, 2024 3:02pm
- cmm
  
  It sounds like she went on a $1.39M bender and kept 10k for other expenses.
  
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  September 17, 2024 4:21pm
Jethrod

Listening to Parliament this afternoon….. what a total waste of Parliamentary time with the members attempting to speak Maorl and show virtue-signaling when they do it. God give me strength.
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September 17, 2024 3:13pm
Bobba Fret

This is good news. An arrest for the girl found burnt in the car they originally thought was a sheeps’body.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ariki-rigby-police-charge-man-with-murder-of-hawkes-bay-teenager-in-2022/KZA5WF3UMBCBREO4KCLVJR3JJI/
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September 17, 2024 4:29pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Julian Batchelor has posted another video on his website that I will not link to.
The Mods are not happy – shilling they call it. I will have a holiday if I link.
Anyway, it is on Youtube so go find it yourself. It is about the 400 plus church leaders and David Seymour’s Bill.
As I said, find it yourself. Sorry.
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September 17, 2024 4:40pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Note, that is his first post since Sept 11th, so it is not every day now.
  
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  September 17, 2024 5:25pm
  - DimChappie
    
    That link does not work for me. I have emailed him about it.
    
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    September 17, 2024 9:26pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I did not leave a link. I have been told not to.
      Google is your friend.
      
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      September 18, 2024 7:27am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

NZCPR. Dr Muriel Newman.
The colossal Mistake.

https://www.nzcpr.com/a-colossal-mistake/
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September 17, 2024 5:37pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  From the post,
  “Since councils are holding binding referenda on local government Maori seats in October next year, why not hold a referendum on Parliament’s Maori seats at the same time?”
  
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  September 17, 2024 6:04pm

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