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January 20, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 20 January 2025

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General Debate

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Yvette

National
Continual repetition of the mantra ”Māori are more likely to be overweight, depressed, homeless, incarcerated and uneducated” [1] has, in our New Zealand psyche, branded many Maori with a sense of underdog victimhood, which having been repeated often enough, the nation it seems has come to believe or accept.
Like, see “Racially tiered ticket prices” 7am post, yesterday morning – “poor brown people” and “all Maori are poor and all non-Maori are well off” (comments)

So, for about a year and a half now, in repeatedly proclaiming the mantra that National Coalition will vote down one of its own bills, without really explaining why (apart from “it is too simple”), what has Luxon established in general confidence of voters towards himself, his party and inversely towards ACT?

How many people hear “We will not support …” and do not know what, because they already have got the message that something – a bill, National, ACT or whatever – is not worth knowing anything more about or supporting, because it’s fucked in its tracks.

The Taxpayer’s Union-Curia poll now has Labour on 30.9 percent, just ahead of National at 29.6 percent.
It is the first time Labour has led National in their poll since April 2023.

I wonder why? Not really …

_____________
[1] Kelvin Davis quote, 2017, that time around
see: It is asking an awful lot of Kiwis to expect them to respect and endorse demands by a slovenly 10% of the population that refuses to use opportunities available to everyone. – Michael Bassett, two days ago, this time around
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/michael-bassett-waitangi-day-looms

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will leave you wiser, or more usually, wounded
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January 20, 2025 8:05am
- PurplePen
  
  From the BrassettHide piece I didn’t realise 6 Feb was subsequently expanded and established by Kirk as NZ Day. It included all sorts of cultural groups from across NZ in a pageant. Then Muldoon changed it to Waitangi Day.
  
  And this from the piece is a good summary of where things are at for some Maori, not all:
  “But there is a noisy 40 to 50% of them, all with more European ancestry than Maori, who think the rest of the country should grant them special privileges such as local government seats, and dedicated health and educational services while they make little or no effort to avail themselves of the huge array of entitlements already available to them as well as to other Kiwis.”
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:59am
- Damocles11
  
  Maori who move to Australia more often than not do very well over there, being freed from bad whanau influences, the constant victim / grievance mentality, and the pathetic NZ nanny state which panders to and feeds their grievances.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:00pm
  - Philview
    
    I was talking to an Aussie farmer recently and he said Maori shearers are always in demand in his area. The ones that go over there have a strong work ethic and also useful in the local League teams.
    
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    January 20, 2025 1:42pm
  - Paulus
    
    And many took their children there to try and persuade them with a different life not to be a Gang member and do Drugs.
    Ask them !
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:08pm
JerJer

Moronic thinking still alive and well.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360551334/workplace-buzzwords-worth-knowing-about-2025

New names for stupid ideas to start the year. Excellent.
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January 20, 2025 8:16am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Just a very good reason never to use Deel, or deal with Shannon Karaka. What a load of bollocks.
  And then there’s this “Many employees and direct managers still have a view that there is a place for hybrid work…” Yeah, employees can have a “view”, but they should all be back at work. Managers who have a view that there is a place for hybrid work should be finding a new job. The data is in, employees, in general, are less productive at home than in the office.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:51am
  - Colville
    
    Hybrid work = working from home but really fucking about ?
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:08pm
  - OlderChas
    
    IVV – and the bit that made me feel nauseous after taking one and reading the whole page of twaddle:
    “For more inspirational stories like this to give you practical information to help you run your own small business, go to the Stuff platform HOW:TO powered by ANZ.”
    
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    January 21, 2025 8:02am
- PurplePen
  
  From that it seems employees have lost the ability to be flexible and adjust to anything that doesn’t fit exactly with the way they want to work.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:05am
- John Loveridge
  
  I hate the world.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:06am
- David Garrett
  
  “Tinder leave ” FFS…Not in my office!!
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:09am
  - John Loveridge
    
    Surely you can have Grindr leave too if you need it, otherwise it’s discrimination.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:22am
Morgan H

Yesterday’s reshuffle was very politically smart. Whoever told Luxon to do it knows what they’re doing.
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January 20, 2025 8:16am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It several here are saying knee jerk reaction to save Luxon
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:26am
- pdm
  
  Right people in the right positions.
  
  I am not so sure about that.
  
  Simon Watts as Local Government Minister gives me no confidence. He is on the Clmate Change bandwagon which Councils will love and they will walk all over him.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:48am
  - David Garrett
    
    pdm: And on the surface at least, Dr Reti seems to have been doing a good job in heatlh. Does anyone know why he has been moved sideways??
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:58am
    - Michael Sommerville
      
      I suspect that Luxon was happy with the work but the results weren’t happening fast enough.
      
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      January 20, 2025 1:16pm
    - rjay
      
      Bureaucracy were ignoring him.
      
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      January 20, 2025 1:29pm
    - Paulus
      
      Simply he is too nice a Guy for the attitudes found within the Health Service.
      He remains a Gentleman too.
      
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      January 20, 2025 2:11pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Too much empathy, couldn’t pull the trigger.
        
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        January 20, 2025 3:36pm
    - cmm
      
      I have the feeling that Reti was not sufficiently ruthless to do the job.
      
      But there are two sides to that role. The second is building public confidence.
      
      I think Reti scored on the public confidence front because he’s a real doctor and, after a long line of clowns in this job there was public confidence in Health being run by a real doctor.
      
      This likely also kept the MSM a bit quiet. How can some journalist call out an actual doctor, a Maori one too, on medical issues?
      
      So the next cab off the rank might do a better job, but I suspect public confidence will be lower. And this will take the journalists off their leashes too.
      
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      January 20, 2025 2:17pm
    - rouppe
      
      I don’t think he is.
      
      Two examples of race based health care at my gp clinic – that I know of – still in place
      
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      January 20, 2025 8:26pm
- cmm
  
  Fuck policitally smart!
  
  Just do the job properly and you don’t need to be politically smart.
  
  I saw the headline in The Press today: “Luxon shuffles his pack”.
  
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  January 20, 2025 2:12pm
Mod88

The Cabinet reshuffle has done exactly what the last Labour Govt was accused of, made the Cabinet/Govt Top Heavy. It will not save Christopher Luxon after a continuing slide in the polls over the last 3 months. Act & NZ First must be looking askance at National as they realise their majority Coalition Partner is a Socialist Party.
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January 20, 2025 8:18am
- Mark Hanley
  
  Anyone who compares Luxon with Adern / Hipkins must be a Labour Spin Doctor.
  
  There is only one logical reason why this comparison would be made and that is in the hope the weak of mind will forget the disastrous 6 years preceeding Luxon, and lend their support to the party which decimated our country.
  
  The irony is of course that you are exposing one of the many weaknesses of the Labour Party in your attempt to drum up support for them.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:21am
  - Mod88
    
    Compares, he should stop acting like them then.
    
    We’ll Spike It, We’ll Kill The Bill, Don’t Worry” is right up there with “That’s Exactly What It Is, Yip, Yip” and “We Never Made The Covid Vaccine Compulsory………People Made Their Own Choices”.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:17am
  - Damocles11
    
    Anyone who defends Luxons mix of wokesterism and blinkered ostrich behaviour must be well placed in the establishment and dogged in their determination that us plebs just get our heads down and tails up to pay for all the ‘koha’ and carbon credits that are going to be needed. Sorry, I won’t be silent. And I’ve never voted for Labour in my life.
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:06pm
    - Grunter
      
      I’m with you on that one. I’m amazed just how blinkered some Nats supporters are at the moment.
      
      In all reality, very little of material value has changed in the past 12 months under Luxon. Sure they have stopped the blatant racism of a separate Maori Health blob, but the racism remains throughout the entire bloated Public Service.
      
      If we have another 12 months of softly, softly (and I expect we will) then at the next election we will have a choice of socialism or communist apartheid.
      
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      January 20, 2025 2:05pm
  - Mark Hanley
    
    First of all I am not a National supporter (although I did vote for them in the last election because they had the strongest team)
    
    Secondly the rabid ACT supporters will do well to remember that without Luxons transformation of the National party, ACT would be sitting on the opposition benches.
    
    Thirdly anyone who followed politics should know ACTS free market at all costs mantra, if implemented, would see the wealthy get wealthier and the middle classes (which I expect most of you are) get poorer. Without controls, the rich pocket all the money.
    
    And MMM, you seem to keep getting Labour and National mixed up, it was Adern who said yip, and ran the bs covid vaccination, what’s that got to do with Luxon?
    
    Domacle, why don’t you do a bit of reading and find out what will happen to NZs exports if we discard climate change policies (search carbon miles for a start), the trick is to do as little as possible whilst talking a big game…. exactly what the wily Luxon is doing.
    
    And grunter, have you been watching the inflation figures? Without wrestling that beast into submission, the Nats will do what labour did and screw the country, including all you pensioners on kiwiblog.
    
    Grunter, have a look through the NZ curriculum to see if all the Maori nonsense has been removed.
    
    Come on you people, pls do more reseach….. I am hoping for intelligent Informed debate, the bs gotcha slogans are the domain of the left….. aren’t they?
    
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    January 20, 2025 4:44pm
    - wsk12345
      
      Problem is none of that stuff matters if we are second class citizens in an ethnostate. Which we are still heading towards fast.
      
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      January 20, 2025 8:00pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Once we again do some research, start by reading the coalition agreements.
        
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        January 21, 2025 7:50am
    - Quail
      
      MH.
      Perhaps you should analyse the inflation figures a bit more closely.
      Inflation has not gone away.
      The NZD is falling against the US .
      Balance of payments deficits Export volumes not good, Productivity worse.
      A government that still spends much more than it receives. Deficit budgeting the norm.More civil servants than Communist China.
      Orr may yet have to adjust the OCR upwards.
      Even the vaunted RMA reforms have not scratched the surface of that industry. (Fast track requires more bureaucrats )
      And all that is without going anywhere near the very
      real racial concerns.
      I want to see and hear some positive rebuilding and action in New Zealand encouraged by this Government now, not next term! They could even start deregulating now.
      Strong leadership is absolutely essential.
      
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      January 20, 2025 8:06pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Once again, pls do a little research… start with keynesian economics and the great depression to find out what happens when a government stops spending in a rescession.
        
        Luxon is repeatedly explaining the need for a strong economy and is sending his ministera out into the world to forge more relationships…. look up UAE trade deal.
        
        David Seymour is heading the department of deregulation! There are good and bad regulations (think leaky buildings with noone held to account) so like all the things you mention above, it takes time.
        
        You don’t hold the poaitions luxon has held without being an extremely strong and talented leader.
        
        A leader who understands change has many consequences which require management and THAT CHANGE OF THE MAGNITUDE NZ REQUIRES…. TAKES TIME!
        
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        January 21, 2025 8:02am
cmm

The talk on the weekend about borrow words and such reminded me of how many of the formal Afrikaans words have been dropped in favour of borrow words from English.

Afrikaans, like German, tends to have some very cumbersome words that are longer than English. When people write software to be translated into multiple languages they leave more space for these languages.

The Afrikaans “tubeless tyre” is “binnebandlose buiteband” (literal translation “inner-tyre-less outer-tyre”). Is it any surprise that most Afrikaners just say “tubeless” (pronounced choo-bliss)?
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January 20, 2025 8:21am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Not quite “Choo-bliss” cmm. Try t-yoob-less. Choobliss is like Jacinda Ardern trying to pronounce “better”.
  
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  January 20, 2025 8:30am
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: This simplification happens in Tonga also. A good example is the phrase for “car”, which used to be “misini saliote” meaning “chariot machine”. Now everyone other than the very old just use “Ka”.
  
  In the absence of an equivalent of the Maori language Commission – funded by millions of dollars a year to invent new Maori words – the Tongans often just Tonganise English words. For example “invoisi” for “invoice” and “famili” for nuclear family. Simply adding an “i” on the end works very well!
  
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  January 20, 2025 8:39am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, no doubt it cost a few million $ to settle on the correct spelling of pirihimana.
    
    There used to be an Afrikaans Language Institute in South Africa (I assume it no longer exists) that applied structure to a pretty fluid language with many regional variations. They’re the people that gave us “binnebandlose buiteband”.
    The people said bugger that.
    
    Afrikaans is an interesting language from this point of view because it is only about 130 years old. During the first 100 years the government was trying to build it up and in the last 30 years the government has been trying to tear it down.
    
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    January 20, 2025 8:55am
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      In 1976, when I was working at Braamfontein in Johannesburg, they celebrated the century of the Afrikaans language, so that makes it 149 years old.
      How’s my spelling?
      “Ek praat “n bietjie taal”
      
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      January 20, 2025 9:24am
      - cmm
        
        It’s one of those things where there is no exact date.
        Some will date it back to the “kitchen Dutch” spoken by Malay slaves and Flemish farmers in the 1700s. Some will only recognise it after the first bible in 1933.
        
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        January 20, 2025 9:38am
      - Local Miller
        
        Interesting that you mention the Flemish farmers cmm. Most people think Afrikaans is similar to Dutch, where actually it’s more closely related to Flemish, and if you can understand Afrikaans, you can pretty much understand Flemish.
        
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        January 20, 2025 10:18am
      - cmm
        
        Local: Correct, Afrikaans is very much like Flemish and really has stronger Flemish roots than Dutch roots.
        
        While the upper-class people (traders etc who lived in town etc) came from Holland and spoke pure Dutch, there were also a lot of Flemish working class people who went to the Cape as farmers to feed the locals and provision ships as well as low-level trades people. They were market gardeners, farriers, etc. They were considered the “rougher sort” by the more refined Dutch.
        
        Some were indentured to the Dutch East India Company and some were “Vry burghers” (Free Citizens). Over time they became the Boers.
        
        None of them really had a love for the fancy Dutch people that lived in the town and that independent spirit only grew when the Brits took over the Cape Colony. This seems to live on in that there is still some loathing of Cape Afrikaners by the people who consider themselves True Boers.
        
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        January 20, 2025 11:04am
      - Jack5
        
        Most people think Afrikaans is similar to Dutch, where actually it’s more closely related to Flemish
        
        For you folk interested in differences between Flemish (Vlaams) and Netherlands Dutch, here’s an 18 minute, watchable and interesting video by an expert.
        
        https://youtu.be/aQ2_AEKTqgw?si=XOVgcrv99FDVieIO
        
        The Netherlands obviously has Dutch as an official language but Belgium also has Dutch as one of its three official languages, presumably for the people of Flanders.
        
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        January 20, 2025 12:44pm
    - slijmbal
      
      @cmm
      
      Not Dutch but lived there and speak the language. I was told Afrikaans was based on old Dutch spoken in the 1600s as it came out of colonisation of the Cape by the Dutch at that time. Dutch has by all accounts changed quite a lot since then.
      
      There is one language for Dutch/Flemish (with a common language board). I also worked at times in Belgium and there is absolutely no problem talking to the Flemish. They are dialects and would better compared with English and American English ie same language with small differences, mainly in pronunciation and different usages of some words. Bit like a yank will giggle if I say rubber for eraser. There are much larger differences from ‘standard’ Dutch with the various Dutch/Flemish dialects such as Frisian and Gronings than between ‘normal’ Dutch and ‘normal’ Flemish.
      
      Happen to have Afrikaans in-laws and have basic Afrikaans skills and don’t see how it could be seen to be closer to Flemish than Dutch (they being essentially the same language) other than in a softer pronunciation like Flemish (guttural g for instance) and being a much nicer sounding language than Dutch, which can at times sound like 2 cats having a fight in a paper bag. Afrikaans does seem to be a more ‘evocative’ language than Dutch.
      
      @Local Miller – I suggest that Afrikaans speakers find it easier to understand Flemish than Dutch because of the pronunciation rather than any significant language differences. Anecdotally, they reckon Dutch/Flemish speakers find it easier to understand Afrikaans than the other way around. That would make sense as Afrikaans grammar is simpler. The Dutch jokingly\insultingly call Afrikaans ‘kinder taal’ – child’s language.
      
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      January 20, 2025 3:20pm
  - Local Miller
    
    More funny is that many of the English words are themselves abbreviations of their originals. Like “car” is an abbreviation for “horseless carriage”, or “bus” for “omnibus”.
    
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    January 20, 2025 10:15am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Head over to s.Korea and you’ll soon discover that you can (sort of ) understand Konglish
  
  https://www.90daykorean.com/konglish/
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:43am
  - Swifty
    
    I’m frequently surprised overhearing my Indian flattie yabbing on the phone to his olds back in India – he frequently does it hands-free walking around the deck or in the kitchen as he makes something to eat etc.
    
    His olds have very limited English, his mother none I am told, but his conversations are just littered with English words – few sentences don’t feature at least one or two English words, if not more.
    
    Interesting.
    
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    January 20, 2025 10:45am
    - Local Miller
      
      Of course they could also be Indian words that have been absorbed into English, like Shampoo.
      
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      January 20, 2025 11:35am
      - Swifty
        
        That’s an ongoing source of mirth in our household, I’ll be yarning away and the flattie will stop me and ask to repeat a word I have used which he recognises as Indian.
        
        Pyjamas has been a recent one, of many.
        
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        January 20, 2025 1:20pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Khaki (= dust)
        
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        January 20, 2025 2:29pm
    - Mummy
      
      Yep I once knew someone who had loud conversations in Hindi on the phone and one day it must’ve got quite heated because it went something like yabba yabba yabba f**k you yabba yabba yabba f**k you yabba yabba yabba. Hilarious to hear
      
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      January 20, 2025 11:37am
      - Colville
        
        Gold. 🙂
        
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        January 20, 2025 12:12pm
      - Swifty
        
        Like this?
        
        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ukznXQ3MgN0
        
        🤣🤣🤣
        
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        January 20, 2025 1:22pm
- Dave
  
  “… some very cumbersome words that are longer than English.”
  
  On a related note, this is probably one reason why the push to replace English terms and place names with unfamiliar Maori equivalents will partly fail, at least in ordinary English speech. There’s not a big difference between “Britomart Station” and “Waitemata Station”, so the latter might win out as an already familiar place name, but “Auckland”, often /ɔːklən/ in everyday speech, versus the ponderously enunciated “Tamaki a Makaurau” when you phone the city council is the winner by five syllables.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:50am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep, Gisborne/Gizzy has 2 syllables..
    
    Turanganui-a-Kiwa has 8 syllables.
    
    Everytime I start to hear Whanganui-a-Tara, I think the weather/news is about W(h)anganui – not Wellington.
    
    No confusion when I hear Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui,… but I’ve never heard any Wellingtonian stating that’s where they’re from.
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:13pm
artemisia

Herald today, by Rob Campbell, former chairman of Te Whatu Ora. (Former = sacked.)

“The Government was committed to demonstrating by December how their changes actually benefit Māori. That they have not done so is because they haven’t. There must be real doubts now about the employment longevity of the three senior people in the system now – Commissioner and chief executives of Te Whatu Ora and Manatū Hauora. Contract renewals or otherwise loom in the coming months and a Government focused on results in critical areas can hardly leave the senior bureaucrats in place when no progress is being made.”

Interestingly, Mr Campbell seems to be referring to the changes made by / under the coalition government. So he must be aware of data showing that the changes he refers to have made no progress and therefore some very senior contracts may not be renewed. Seems like a short time to collect data and uncover trends sufficient to justify senior heads rolling.

Strange. Maybe the new Minister should be sitting down with Mr Campbell to discover changes that will really work, based on his current and former experience and successes.

Meanwhile Bill Hickman over at RNZ has interviewed the folk with all the answers. PSA, Nurses Organisation, General Practice New Zealand. Elevator speech from all – more money will fix it.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/reti-or-not-health-minister-shane-reti-is-bounced-as-christopher-luxon-reshuffles-his-top-table/SY6GYHG6ZFFS3B5NVZ23OF35M4/
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January 20, 2025 8:24am
- pdm
  
  `Interestingly, Mr Campbell seems to be referring to the changes made by / under the coalition government. ‘
  
  It seems to me the most pertinent question re this matter is this.
  
  Who is leaking to Rod Campbell?
  
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  January 20, 2025 8:27am
  - Aquarius
    
    Campbell remains an apologist for the left
    You can take a man out of the union, but can you take the union out of the man……
    And a well experienced ‘leaker’
    
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    January 20, 2025 9:11am
    - Thodric Jarl
      
      Rod Campbell is an idiot who solved nothing and created more problems. His credibility is shot. He is simply a partisan hack without sound judgement.
      
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      January 20, 2025 10:23am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      And the vulgar media run to the fool that was sacked
      
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      January 20, 2025 10:40am
- cmm
  
  People are like cars. As they get older the joins start squeaking and they take longer to get started in the morning.
  
  As people get generally older, demands on the health system are going to increase.
  
  Even more so that more and more complex interventions we make so that people now die in their 80s rather than their 60s.
  
  This means that the more we intervene, the more it costs per person and the more intervention that is needed per person. Hence small changes in medical technology result in massively increased costs.
  
  On top of that we have quality of life costs such as hip replacements. The number of those has more than doubled since 2000 because people are now outliving their joints more than they did.
  
  As medical capabilities improve and people squeeze a few more years out of their body we can only expect costs to continue to increase.
  
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  January 20, 2025 8:37am
  - rjay
    
    New Zealand should decide what the basic minimum of health provision is that it can afford. No special provision or treatment for rare diseases. Anything beyond what can be done at a provincial hospital should be outsourced to an Australian outfit. If people choose to die of selfinflicted issues in the meantime then so be it.
    
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    January 20, 2025 8:56am
    - cmm
      
      That’s a very hard line to pull in a country with a socialist health system.
      
      I suspect when the system becomes overloaded it is going to end up being means tested.
      
      In the past our medical capabilities were limited and those determined the cut off point. Now we can keep people going longer and longer and we have to start making decisions as to when to stop treating.
      
      Do we start limiting the number of ops people get? eg. max 2 hip ops?
      
      Some self-inflicted stuff certainly makes sense.
      
      In 2020 I was in hospital and a guy in the ward had just had a permanent defibrillator machine fitted in his chest. He was massively obese (I would guess well over 200 kg) and unable to work even though only in his 30s. His equally obese wife and sister had come to pick him up and take him home to Invercargill or such. They were already discussing the fast food they would need for the trip: 2 Big Macs in Chch, stop for KFC in Timaru,…
      
      So chances are that all that cost for fitting a defib machine in that bloke’s chest was a waste of time.
      
      15 1
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      January 20, 2025 9:57am
    - Grunter
      
      rjay – “New Zealand should decide….” (who do you mean exactly?)
      
      You have pretty much described how the old Soviet health system worked. But you left out the part where the Govt elites got gold-plated treatment as the peasants died.
      
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      January 20, 2025 10:26am
      - peterwn
        
        NZ union leaders would once visit USSR and receive surgery they could not get in NZ.
        
        8 0
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        January 20, 2025 12:55pm
      - rjay
        
        No. I’m describing how other third world health systems work. New Zealand(ers) need to accept we can’t afford to be first world as long as we have the productivity of some sort of expensive tourism destination.
        
        3 1
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        January 20, 2025 1:34pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    This old car has damaged tie rods on the shoulder ball joint.
    Hoping to get a repair soon.
    
    13 2
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    January 20, 2025 9:01am
    - mogg
      
      I have got a few miles on the clock but I am still in good working order. However my wife has needed to go in for the occasional retread.
      
      10 0
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      January 20, 2025 10:17am
      - David Garrett
        
        mogg: Given the thrashing I have given myself since leaving the oilfield, I am also in remarkably good working order…although the latest liver function tests were something of a wake-up call.
        
        8 0
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        January 20, 2025 12:04pm
      - mogg
        
        Liver disease and gout; ‘the wages of sin’
        
        4 0
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        January 20, 2025 1:30pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        The wages of sin is death, if I remember the Good Book correctly.
        
        6 0
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        January 20, 2025 2:36pm
    - grumpy
      
      Tomorrow for me! Only took 5 months!
      
      10 0
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      January 20, 2025 11:45am
      - slijmbal
        
        @grumpy
        
        Still waiting from September for a simple outpatient treatment for my heart flutter. Tried ringing the hospital, left messages, emails etc Silence was the loud reply.
        
        Gave up waiting and went private. Looks like wrong treatment anyway and I need heart ablation, which I should get within a month. They were doing the cheapest and not the effective treatment or not doing in this case.
        
        I have paid (and continue to pay) a large amount of tax over the last 35 years and would be happy to follow rjay’s suggestion if I was allowed to contract out of paying the health portion of my taxes. Would easily cover my bills and leave enough to go on expensive holidays.
        
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        January 20, 2025 3:34pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Lucky you! I’ve been waiting a long time and I detest the heavy medication.
        DG mentions liver function, and that is what worries me with the meds. Last liver scan showed no scaring and very healthy for 72.
        My brother says it is a rogue test with the amount that I drink! I am not sick, I just have that fucked up painful left ball joint.
        
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        January 20, 2025 3:54pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Who cares, health care is now firmly back in the need not race phrase, no one turns up to hospital and does not get care, it is bullshit, it always was, I seen how wait times for surgery has started to drop, I was told just sftwr the flsctikn3 years to fix both my hips, yet 13 months done and dusted, many are now only waiting 4 months, and one woman I spoke to at pre admission said as she got her date for surgery after seeing GP the very next day.
  
  In the hospital, nurses were only doing 8 hour shifts, they were not stressed, they were openly organising their breaks , they had plenty of time to do what they were entrust to do. I remember a few years ago probably when Nats were in last time how terrible the food was , well I can tell everyone the food was rest, good sized toast pork and roast veggies and gravy and apple sauce. 3 years ago some of the food was tough, but that’s the last list mess, food was spot on.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:39am
  - wsk12345
    
    Well lucky you. After providing a sample several months ago I have yet to get a response regarding my eligibility for a colonoscopy. Apparently 3 generations of bowel cancer deaths doesn’t get me in because they were uncles and grandparents rather than parents and siblings.
    
    If I could get a response it would help as I’ve been saving to go private if I need to but actually have other uses for that money.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:02pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Wsk: Get ur doctor to help mate. I had ONE male cousin die of it at age 19 – virtually unheard of apparently. That has been enough to get me three cameras up the bum since I was 50.
      
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      January 20, 2025 3:14pm
      - Ghost
        
        That’s whose job it is, the gp, but if a Pooh sample has gone in and come back clear then they probably can’t do much
        
        2 1
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        January 20, 2025 3:47pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        At 72 I have had 5 now. Polyps which are cut out.
        Last time I was at Southern Cross (contracted out) After preparation (not nice) then take some drugs the room I look around and all Women.
        So “why do 5 women want to look at my bum?” Made them giggle but settled the bit of apprehension.
        
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        January 20, 2025 4:02pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Ghost – as far as my doc and I know the sample has not come back yet.
        
        DG – Christchurch unfortunately requires a first degree relative but my doc is trying.
        
        I had one in 20 years ago within 3 weeks in a different city.
        
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        January 20, 2025 8:05pm
      - Ghost
        
        You need to get your doctor to follow that up. The results should be back. If it was part of the bowel screening you should have the results back within 3 weeks. There is a number to call to follow up
        
        https://info.health.nz/keeping-healthy/cancer-screening/bowel-screening/doing-the-test#getting-your-test-results-4135
        
        If the testing was done by your doctor requesting it at the local lab it should be back sooner.
        
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        January 20, 2025 8:18pm
    - Skippytony
      
      If you have any concerns, first speak to your GP.
      
      Dont faff about, go private.
      
      You may have other uses for the money, but believe me, the difference between being diagnosed between stage 3 and stage 4 bowel cancer is dramatic and six months can make all the difference in the world.
      
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      January 20, 2025 3:40pm
  - slijmbal
    
    @G the Giant
    
    does not match my experience. Was identified as having heart arrythmia problems and it’s taken 16 months so far NOT to get what is now turning out to be the wrong treatment having gone private.
    
    Without treatment I am told I have statistically a 7% chance of a stroke each year – the odds will go up each year as well – so not a minor issue.
    
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    January 20, 2025 3:38pm
  - Ghost
    
    Same here, the waiting times aren’t very long thanks to the surgeons being allowed to operate, instead of restrained as they were by labour. But I suspect some of the people who are having to wait are in the Auckland catchment
    
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    January 20, 2025 3:48pm
  - rouppe
    
    “health care is now firmly back in the need not race phrase”.
    
    Not true. Late last year an intravenous antibiotic was offered to me at $600, unless I could show I was Maori, in which case it was free.
    
    My health care clinic offers services of a dietician, heavily subsidised of you have a csc or are Maori.
    
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    January 21, 2025 4:10am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I heard Paul Goulter on RNZ this am. Amongst other gems, he commented that the Nurses Organisation he leads is committed to the fight against gender discrimination. The fact that he, a male, leads the Nurses Organisation consisting overwhelmingly of females, passed unremarked by the interviewer. Irony of ironies.
  
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  January 20, 2025 2:34pm
Bridgenag

Sunday Strip: The Near is End
Trump Takes DC

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/sunday-strip-the-near-is-end?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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January 20, 2025 8:25am
Matt Long

Sometimes things just write themselves, BP hires a CEO named Mr Looney to set climate targets and invest in renewables.
Next the company has to fire 5000 people and cut renewables and climate targets to stay afloat.
I bet there was a whole lot of DEI in there as well.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/bp-cuts-thousands-of-jobs-to-slash-costs/M6QXEARATZDNHMVWDESM76YQG4/
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January 20, 2025 8:29am
BarryB

Yesterday I turned to the cricket in Hamilton – only to hear that it was a celebration of DEI, AND THERE WAS A BIG MULTICOLOURED inner circle – a RAINBOW circle !!!
A RAINBOW baby is the first born after there has been a stillbirth by the mother…..

When a baby is born dead – stillbirth -, or dies very soon after birth, it begins a process that results in a RAINBOW baby.
Don’t believe it? Look it up……..
https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/rainbow-baby
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_baby

It really surprises me that a body such as NZ Cricket, promoting womens cricket, should stage a match of two womens cricket teams while promoting what many consider to be the greatest insult to women possible – the death of a baby at birth or soon after.

It is difficult to believe that the cricket game should start by a celebration of the death of new borns – by two womens cricket teams……………….
The New Zealand Cricket board should hang its heads in shame.

NZ Cricket board members are: 5 women, 5 men. I would have thought one of the women would be worldly enough to know what an insult calling gays, homosexuals, lesbians, etc Rainbow………Call them what they are – at best suffering from gender dysphoria but more likely mentally unbalanced.
The NZC Board is:
Lesley Murdoch – president.
Diana Puketapu-Lyndon
Sarah brings
Bill Birnie
Anna Campbell
Mike Devonshire
Kevin Molloy
Dion Nash
Alison Shanks
Roger Twose

Contactable at [email protected]
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January 20, 2025 8:32am
- Grunter
  
  I am so glad I don’t watch this nonsense!
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:29am
- pdm
  
  Dion Nash was ‘hard nosed’ cricketer as was Roger Twose.
  
  The rest must have worn them down.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:55am
- David Garrett
  
  Barry B: Being gay is not a mental illness; they are born that way. Obviously you have no gay friends. Or you are a fundy Christian – or perhaps both I guess.
  
  The transgenders and various other weird categories not related to sexual orientation are indeed forms of mental illness.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:08pm
  - NoFax
    
    You have arbitrarily decided that certain self-identifications are allowed and others are not. The desire to use one’s reproduction abilities for non-reproductive ends is no different than deciding that one’s reproductive organs don’t decide one’s sex. The desire to separate the “T” from “LGBT” is incoherent. Liberalism, even so called “Classical Liberalism”, delivered the “LGB” and the “T”, plus the rest of the alphabet, will surely follow. So-called “Trans rights” is the natural successor to Liberalism.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:12pm
    - PurplePen
      
      LGB is about who you’re attracted to and love. The rest of the alphabet is about what sex you are.
      
      7 2
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      January 20, 2025 2:35pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Purple: Perfectly put…saved me having to write something very similar
        
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        January 20, 2025 3:17pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  That’s a committee not a board.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:09pm
- Ghost
  
  A rainbow baby has zero to do with the gay community. What’s your problem with people who have lost a child celebrating the next child? It does not take away from their loss, it’s part of remembering that loss
  
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  January 20, 2025 1:02pm
- Paulus
  
  Things MAY change when other women go to support the matches, and not just when some organisation, like a Women’s run Bank, gives away thousands of tickets, and they still do not turn up.
  Oh, I forgot they want more money !
  
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  January 20, 2025 2:21pm
Cassandra

Lord Allan Sugar, billionaire founder of Armstrad: “Tossers sitting there in their pyjamas touching their keyboard every few minutes while watching football. After Covid, I said to my staff get back to work. If you don’t like it, sod off”.
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January 20, 2025 8:34am
- pdm
  
  Cass – he sounds like my kind of man.
  
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  January 20, 2025 8:36am
  - Paulus
    
    He satrted with a barrow in East London as AMSugar Trading – electrical bits and pieces.
    One of the original Dell Boys.
    His first computer, of which I once had, as an AMSTRAD, his name and business.
    His Mum and Sister were the first employees.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:25pm
- Gravelroad
  
  We work from home.
  And so so our sheep, cows, working dogs, woolshed cat and the horse.
  Does that count for anything?
  
  33 0
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  January 20, 2025 8:56am
  - Prince
    
    Why are you on Kiwiblog at 9AM? Get out there and check on your sheep etc.
    Your country needs you.
    
    Kind Regards,
    Bureaucrat (wfh).
    
    22 0
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    January 20, 2025 9:09am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Thing is you don’t have the time to do nothing!
    
    10 1
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    January 20, 2025 9:26am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Big house!
    
    5 0
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    January 20, 2025 9:34am
  - David Garrett
    
    Gravel: You still have a working horse? You must be as old as Noah!
    
    8 0
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    January 20, 2025 12:09pm
- MCōs
  
  Personally I never liked working from home. Quite apart from being in an industry that relied on fairly constant cooperation with work colleagues I liked the division between the office and not the office.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:27am
  - RoboRob
    
    Totally agree. Working from home at the moment due to construction in the office. Would much rather be at work esp with a Uni student and high school kid bumming around the house while I work.
    
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    January 20, 2025 10:14am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, even if you’re self employed, and can work from home; going to an office a few days a week at least gets you out of the house. The ‘office’ can be the library, or an internet cafe.
    
    8 1
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    January 20, 2025 11:00am
  - John Loveridge
    
    I’m generally about half in the office, half out in the field. I could work from home, but I hate it. I need that separation and the focus the office environment brings.
    
    10 1
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    January 20, 2025 11:19am
  - David Garrett
    
    MCos: I am hopeless at working from home…Far too many distractions close at hand.
    
    9 1
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    January 20, 2025 12:12pm
    - Keith White
      
      It’s “difficult” to examine / treat / carry out procedures on patients when one is not in close proximity to them. That’s my stance on WFH.
      
      0 1
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      January 20, 2025 7:32pm
  - wsk12345
    
    I’ve worked almost entirely from home for my whole work life. Couldn’t pay me enough to get back to an office, commuting, annoying people, away from natura light. Ugh. I work, take a break when I want to, work around other things I need to do. I’m paid for the hours I work so it’s a win win.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:07pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Cass, I know several business owners in NZ who have done exactly that. I think in one case, the words the owner used to one of his staff were “if you want to work from home, then spend the time cooking and doing the washing and ironing for your wife, cos you won’t be working for me. You have one minute to make the right decision otherwise leave your keys, access card and laptop on my desk and don’t let the door hit you too hard on the arse as you leave”.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:59am
  - MCōs
    
    Doesn’t sound like a match made in heaven in the first place!
    
    5 0
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    January 20, 2025 10:30am
  - Paulus
    
    My Son’s business in Auckland ….said no more working from home, and any resignations must be in writing by tomorrow 5pm.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:27pm
- John Loveridge
  
  And we all know Lord Sugar was right on the money.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:18am
- NoFax
  
  It’s called projection – it’s what I would do, therefore, you must be too. For some, WFH doesn’t work and for others it does. Some jobs lend themselves to it and others do not. It’s not about distractions as an open plan office is plenty distracting is about control. Some managers think telling people what to do is leading whereas others think bringing the best out of people is the way to go.
  
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  January 20, 2025 2:17pm
Clyde

Where is Hosking? I’m assuming stopping over for the inauguration? He needs to be back!
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January 20, 2025 8:44am
- Inandout
  
  Clyde, note Bridges has stepped in from his 5am slot which was filled by him after Kate departed. That one hour slot is ridiculous until you realise Bridges may have been primed to take over from Mike who turns 60 this week.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:44am
  - pdm
    
    Bridges is going to be covering for HDPA when nipper number 2 arrives and she takes maternity leave I think.
    
    Seems to be a man on the way up so you may be right. There is not much else on offer.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:02am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He was anti Trump so I doubt it, he won’t back till end of January as usual, possibly next Monday
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:44am
- lifesgood
  
  Newstalk kept announcing Mike would be back today. Last minute trip to the inauguration?
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:06am
Yvette

Pelotas
Many commenters here have said Luxon needs to “grow a pair”, referring metaphorically to his testacular power, when it is his brain that is the real problem, and is unlikely to change much since that problem, voting down one of his Governments own bills, is of his own making.

It needs a radical change, not in the size of Luxon’s pelotas, but in their replacement with those of Winston or David Seymour.
That’s how you may get a bigger set of balls.

__________________
Luxon’s Maori leanings?
… Having spent some time with him a couple of years ago (just before he became leader of the National Party), I was genuinely impressed by his views on Māori issues and on social policy in general (though I know my Labour and Māori Party friends wouldn’t love hearing me say that).

He has the potential to lead with a more inclusive and collaborative approach, particularly on issues that matter deeply to our communities. The challenges facing New Zealand – employment, healthcare, economic resilience, and climate change – demand leadership that builds bridges rather than reinforcing divides. I hope Luxon leans into this potential, as our country and its people deserve nothing less.
– Dr Areti Metuamate (Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Hauā), an Indigenous politics and policy academic, currently based in Melbourne
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/01/16/nz-better-off-when-luxon-leans-into-his-potential/

“I hope Luxon leans into this potential” – how soft is that?
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January 20, 2025 8:44am
- Mod88
  
  Says it all does it not, hence his career ending utterance to the activist with a microphone a few days ago.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:32am
- imalwaysright
  
  Is Luxon still intending to build 10,000 electric vehicle charging stations?
  If so, maybe he should form his own company and ask investors to pay for them.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:44am
- RoboRob
  
  No, he really does need to grow some balls! His issue is fear, he is too scared to take a position on anything and stand of any of his beliefs (assuming he has some).
  
  He thinks by sitting on the fence in all issues, this doesn’t muddy the water. In reality it just pisses off everyone with an interest in either side of an argument.
  
  Nationals poll results are the outcome of them not having any clear principles or beliefs. They are a management team without a board of directors to set a direction.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:20am
  - Sparrow
    
    Exactly he pisses off both sides. As have said before a typical corporate crawler never has an opinion would never rock the boat. Arse licked to the top now at the top of a nation “Lost”
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:06am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Uncertainty leads to an escalation and increased waste of resources on both sides.
      To compensate for uncertainty people generally adopt a more extreme position than they would normally.
      
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      January 20, 2025 11:51am
- pdm
  
  Yvette your research is outstanding. As is your ability to interpret and expand on the research.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:05am
- Quail
  
  Agree Y,
  If Luxon won’t do the job he should think of New Zealand and walk away.
  NZ and lts peoples welfare are much more important than any individual.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:29am
kevn

More wtf LA fire stories…
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1881033029382193613
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January 20, 2025 9:28am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  That is just crazy. DEI Democrats – everything they touch turns to shit.
  America is very broken.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:39am
- sungsamning
  
  I wouldn’t be too surprised if California goes red in the mid-terms. If that happens, there will not be a Dem in the Whitehouse for a long time.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:04am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    That would be great.
    Drain that swamp President Trump. You know what is involved this time. Take no prisoners.
    
    7 1
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    January 20, 2025 11:35am
    - sungsamning
      
      yes, with the swamp drained, some agencies gone, and some people wearing orange; ther would be less scope for a Dem president to botch things up in the future.
      
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      January 20, 2025 5:32pm
- cmm
  
  The big question is whether Californians will really learn from this.
  
  People like to blame the politicians mainly because they want someone else to blame for what is going wrong.
  
  But they should really look in the mirror and blame themselves. The politicians are all voted in. They reflect the will of the people.
  
  Now the will of the people has backfired and the people don’t want to should er the blame.
  
  Other states are already having problems with Californians who have left California but brought Californian attitudes with them.
  
  That is why I think we will see some short-term backlash against politicians but a return to “normal” within 10 years (once houses have been rebuilt and the chaos sorted out).
  
  This situation will only change long term if the people realize they were wrong and they are broken and then fix themselves.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:29am
  - Mummy
    
    Like Wellington.
    
    7 0
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    January 20, 2025 11:41am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Californians move to Texas.
    A real good series.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlDWzN6TW5Y
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:48am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Yep. I made that point a week ago, Californian Voters Won’t Change.
    
    All of these problems were apparent at the city and state level years ago for anyone with eyes to see, but when Governor Hairgell faced a recall in 2021 he won it comfortably, and LA went on to elect Bass mayor in 2022 in spite of decades of Castro worship:
    
    In her junkets to Cuba as a member of Congress, Bass never took up the case of a single Cuban political prisoner, black or otherwise, never called out the regime for human rights violations, and never called for free elections.
    
    She also praised him when he died, but denies she’s a communist (of course) and claims she is a Christian (of course).
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:19pm
  - cmm
    
    There was a saying in Oregon in the 1980s/90s.
    
    Don’t Californicate Oregon.
    
    Now look at them – Oregon is arguably worse than California.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:09pm
- Bridgenag
  
  Appalling. The truth must come out in every area of our lives…………podium of truth stuff doesn’t cut it.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:58am
Damocles11

I think Luxon has been ‘advised’ by his mentor / handler John Key that if he just adopts a jokey / folksy style with the MSM they will soon be eating out of his hand. Milquetoast National need to wake up and smell what the PIJF has been cooking: the game has changed, the MSM are feral. Either take down the MSM, or they will take down you. Luxon needs to take the kid gloves off, and put his boxing gloves on. And not just as regards the MSM either: a whole raft of matters require the same approach. It’s no good beating up on your own ministers while the Left look on chortling with glee.
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January 20, 2025 9:34am
- Grunter
  
  Ignore what Luxon says in his corporate-speak word salads…..just take note of what he supports and decide for yourself if he is the answer to NZ’s woke-socialist pathway. Luxon supports:
  
  1. Global Boiling initiatives funded by the central Govt.
  2. Never-ending Govt deficits and growing Govt Debt.
  3. Continuing to adjust the ToW interpretation to “keep up with the times”
  4. Retaining all Govt owned assets
  5. Retaining all Govt monopolies including Health, Education, Infrastructure, and Retirement funding
  6. Maintaining the existing Welfare State that has hooked generations of Kiwis on free handouts and enabled the lazy to become lazier.
  7. Retaining a ‘Deep State’ public service tribe that is larger, costlier, and less effective than anytime prior to 2023.
  
  This lot would even make Helen Clark and Cullen blush!
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:48am
  - Damocles11
    
    When you put it like that….
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:35am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    8. Maorification.
    9. Co-Governance.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:51am
- NoFax
  
  You are making the assumption that secretly he wants to do more but feels hamstrung by the media or some other unspoken force. The reality is that he is doing exactly what he wants. If you think that’s good then vote for National, if you think that’s bad then vote for someone else.
  
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  January 20, 2025 2:21pm
DimChappie

Looks like there was nothing to see there, Stats NZ says. Hopefully the Public Service Commissioner report will be more interesting:

“Stats NZ inquiry clears Whānau Ora of 2023 Census data breach”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/stats-nz-inquiry-clears-whanau-ora-of-2023-census-data-breach/MSHXHJ7HUFGDLO3D7UEU54XWGI/
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January 20, 2025 9:41am
- imalwaysright
  
  Photocopying someone’s census form without telling them is data theft.
  Can a census form collector take the forms home and scan them and keep the data?
  That’s what Waipereira did.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:58am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Photocopying someone’s census form without telling them is data theft.
    
    And it is a publicly notifiable privacy breach.
    
    Can a census form collector take the forms home and scan them and keep the data?
    
    No, but when people left their completed census forms in the letterbox or under the doormat (as instructed), and handed over to the census form collector, it was a privacy chain breach, whether or not the data was accessed.
    
    And for many years, stats were selling private data. Ask any stats dept whistleblower.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:06am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Surely it must be a crime to cover up a crime?
      Especially for a public servant.
      
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      January 20, 2025 1:02pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Ask Ardern and Robertson about the $100 Billion. Nooks and crannies, crooks and nannies.
        
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        January 20, 2025 4:48pm
- cmm
  
  That’s bad, but this is worse:
  
  ” $100 kai vouchers were being given to whānau who completed a Census form.”
  
  ” Up to $1 million from the $5m contract could be set aside for incentives.”
  
  Fuck right off!
  
  The “what is in it for me” attitude is being rewarded and only getting worse.
  
  How soon before we start paying whānau to care for their kids?
  
  No I am not joking.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:09am
  - trout
    
    The Stats Dept. report is an exercise in self justification and an avoidance of the more sensitive privacy issues. Their attitude is ‘don’t mind the price just feel the quality!’. Well, what about the quality? JT’s outfit, Whanau Ora was paid $5mill (including $1mill to pay out as incentives to respondents). For the price the contract was for 2 months; the purchased canvassing effort increased the vote in Auckland north from 82% to 87.3%, and from 64.7% to 70.3% in the South. Dubious value for money but very profitable for JT Inc.
    
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    January 20, 2025 10:35am
  - Grunter
    
    cmm
    It’s already happening;
    – Paid Parental Leave (have babies, stay off work, we’ll pay…..)
    – State provided School Lunches (we’ll feed your kids)
    – Solo Mothers Benefit (you don’t have to name the Father to help pay)
    There are bound to be others that I haven’t thought of….?
    
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    January 20, 2025 10:52am
    - cmm
      
      Soon to be:
      * KFC vouchers if you turn up for your medical appointment, court date etc.
      * $50 for turning up at PTA meetings. Extra $50 if you stay to the end.
      
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      January 20, 2025 2:21pm
  - Swifty
    
    Why did Stats need others to give out $100 vouchers?
    
    Bloody hell, any monkey could do that.
    
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    January 20, 2025 10:59am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Monkeys would probably eat the KFC instead of handing it out.
      
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      January 20, 2025 4:49pm
  - Jinky
    
    Already happens. Kids under OT care who end up being returned to mum. Mum can claim caregiver benefits!
    
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    January 20, 2025 4:53pm
- Scooter
  
  The 2 paragraphs in the article shows why nothing will be done because…Maori. NZ will forever continue to be held back by the few activists that believe Maori own NZ and others that are too weak (esp in Govt at the moment) to confront this and put a stop to it.
  
  “It refers to how the chief statistician is required to give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi by recognising Māori interests in the collection of data, and the way it is collected and managed before determining the manner of undertaking the Census and the data to be collected.
  
  It also says “the statistician must engage with Māori on Māori interests in data and maintain capability and capacity to engage with Māori about the collection of data”
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:14am
  - cmm
    
    There is no incentive to improve Maori outcomes. In fact there is quite the incentive to do otherwise. There is a huge grift industry that depends on poor Maori performance. That would go away if Maori were successful.
    
    So why would anyone want to solve the problems and kill off the trough?
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:08am
  - Damocles11
    
    I’ve combed through the Treaty of Waitangi but have found no references to ‘data collection’. I must have missed it, although I did go through it line by line.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:34am
    - jacthecat
      
      That’s because you have to find the relevant ‘principle’ … good luck.
      
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      January 20, 2025 12:58pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      That’s because you weren’t channeling the spirits of the dead chiefs, and interpreting what they really meant. Buy yourself a Maori Ouija board.
      
      https://www.mountainjade.co.nz/products/new-zealand-jade-large-roimata-necklace?variant=40851632685165
      
      Put one of those around your neck and you will channel the ancient Maoris. Or pick up the local FM station.
      
      Sorry – hit report by mistake.
      
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      January 20, 2025 4:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    “Engage with Maori”
    
    Which Maori? This one? That one? All of them at once?
    
    Or just the noisy ones?
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:46pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  But where is the RDC report?
  
  For some odd reason, I’d rather interpret what it says myself, than believe the Herald’s spin.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:19am
- Damocles11
  
  Yes, nothing found. The establishment don’t want anything found, let’s be honest. We’ll get findings quietly drip fed through, anything that took place will be found to be ‘necessary as per the obligations of The Treaty of Waitangi’. Public anger will eventually reach boiling point despite the endeavours of the establishment.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:51am
MCōs

TikTok was down for a day or so in the USA and now it’s back.
Well, fancy that.
That’s the last we’ll hear of any consequence about that I’m picking
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January 20, 2025 9:50am
kjh

Another day and another government entity – Kiwirail – demanding mates rates: “Ideally your proposed rate should offer a better value to KR than the market rate or possibly even the current rate. additional discounts such as rebates, advance order pricing, deferred payments, 30 day free trials, etc. will also be considered should supplier offer it.” If you wonder why their infrastructure and service is so shite just remember the critical bits are being delivered by the lowest tenderers offering the biggest bribes
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January 20, 2025 10:33am
- Ghost
  
  So a government agency be responsible with what funding they have are trying to get cheaper prices?
  
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  January 20, 2025 6:39pm
Gravelroad

On Te News last evening, the TVNZ’s reporter in New York covered an anti Trump march.
As per TVNZ’s apparent anti-Trump at all costs narrative, the reporter interviewed two older lady marchers who were having a fit of the vapours about the evilness of Trump.
And “what would become of them” now that he was the president.
Worst they could do was hold up toilet cleaning brushes with long orange “hair” and the face of the President on the handle.
Really, is that the best TVNZ “news” can do?
Here we are in rapidly changing world times and conditions and our man in New York interviews two women holding toilet brushes – because- Trump.
Pathetic.
Maybe time for TVNZ to grow up and report on something worthwhile that is actually news?
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January 20, 2025 10:38am
- Grunter
  
  Gravel – I can’t beleive that you still watch this State owned propaganda sihtshow! It can not be good for your brain nor blood pressure.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:55am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Yeah, yeah, bro, but we are just peasants in the country.
    We don’t even have a landline phone that works.
    Too hard to fix now, we are told.
    Went fine in 1974.
    However, do not worry- we got on to Trump’s mate Elon and he sold us a thing called starlink.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:39am
    - Bridgenag
      
      Watch Sky.au They don’t care about hurting anyones feelings
      
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      January 20, 2025 12:03pm
- Swifty
  
  Quite right Gravel.
  
  I remember in Trump’s first term our news media, especially Stuff, had articles attacking him and his administration daily and for the full four years.
  
  It was just relentless.
  
  And they put up a positive article about once a year.
  
  I noticed the other day that they’ve started again. Almost every article I’ve seen in the last few weeks has been attacks – most recently article after article quoting nobodies expressing doom and gloom about the upcoming presidency and not one on how he and his team might actually change some things for the better – not one.
  
  Perhaps this is one of the reasons why our news media companies are on the fast track to bankruptcy – people have had a guts full and are going elsewhere for their news.
  
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  January 20, 2025 10:56am
  - Gravelroad
    
    One of the most ridiculous over-reactions here re Trump was when that Nat MP/leader Todd Muller got annihilated by the media for having a MAGA hat on a shelf in his office.
    He said it was an innocent souvenir from a trip to the US – but no, that made him an absolute pariah according to the media judges and their political bosses.
    Whether Muller was an effective political leader or not was irrelevant. He was hounded because of a hat.
    I hope some of those reporters can look back and admit that it was a bit shameful what they did to that man.
    
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    January 20, 2025 11:52am
    - cmm
      
      Unfortunately Muller was not up to the brutal reality of being a non-Leftie politician.
      
      I’ll bet the reporters were all high-fiving that they had achieved what they wanted to.
      
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      January 20, 2025 11:57am
    - Swifty
      
      I agree – that whole thing was ridiculous.
      
      Not helped, I must say, by Muller’s reaction to it all – removing the hat from display subsequent to the press coverage, like he had done something wrong or had something to hide.
      
      I hope in the same situation I would have had the courage to tell them all to go and get knotted – the hat stays.
      
      (Or, if I felt a cowardly type, I wouldn’t have put the hat up in the first place.)
      
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      January 20, 2025 12:02pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        He should have put the hat on his head.
        I have no problem wearing my Trump hats and tees.
        
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        January 20, 2025 12:21pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        When someone is under attack, the battle is not in the media, or in the minds of the readers; it is in the mind of those being attacked. That is where the battle is actually waged. The media just creates the impression that no-one agrees with you and then the self-doubt kicks in. It is all a game of intimidation,
        
        If the media jump on you for having a MAGA hat, next interview you proudly have two MAGA hats on display.
        
        In terms of not being intimidated, I respect Winston for standing up and calling a spade a spade. And Shane Jones. But that is superseded by the three ladies from VFF, who stood their ground regardless of media beat ups, and the Ardern govt spending millions trying to spread hate and disinformation about them.
        
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        January 20, 2025 12:26pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Today I heard RNZ’s Washington correspondent refer to him as ‘Trump’. Not President Trump, not former President Trump, not President-Elect Trump, not Mr Trump.
    
    That vignette sums up most of NZ media’s attitude to the Once and Future President, Donald J Trump.
    
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    January 20, 2025 2:50pm
    - artemisia
      
      It is correct to call former US Presidents by that title, for life.
      
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      January 20, 2025 6:09pm
- mogg
  
  They are the Marxist Media and proud of it.
  AUT study has found that 75% of people ‘actively avoid MSM news’ or check their facts somewhere else.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:56am
  - JackRabbit
    
    AUT study has found that 75% of people ‘actively avoid MSM news’ or check their facts somewhere else.
    
    You cannot check facts with the MSM, as there are no facts to check. Just soundbites, opinions, assumptions, and digging up dirt.
    
    If the MSM actually reported the truth, the War in the Ukraine would be long gone, the Covid pandemic wold never have happened, Pfizer and Moderna execs and investors would be serving 500 year sentences or be on death row; we wouldn’t have had lockdown, and NZ would not be $100Bn in extra debt.
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:30pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  On Youtube the rally today showed a group with those toilet brushes.
  They don’t realise how stupid they look wearing those silly pussy hats!
  Some really good speeches, especially the one by Donald Trump Jr. The crowd are loving it. Many outside who just could not get in. The Inauguration tomorrow will be a cracker.
  But yes, TV1 is very childish. They would not know real news if it smacked them in the forehead. That is what you get with the children in control.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:16pm
sungsamning

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/19/tiktok-works-us-trump-assurances-.html
TikTok Restoring U.S. Service After Trump Provided ‘Assurance’.
TikTok was available to some users on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump said that he would sign an executive order to delay a federal ban of the app.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media app Truth Social on Sunday morning. [My cousin will be pleased.]
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January 20, 2025 10:46am
- cmm
  
  It appears that many US users were switching over to the other Chinese offering: RedNote.
  
  RedNote would seem to be far worse than Tiktok in terms of anything the US fears about social media and Chinese influence/security leaks etc.
  
  RedNote is a nicely sanitised name – the actual name is 小红书国际版, anglicised to “Xiaohongshu”. That’s “Little Red Book” (as per Chairman Mao).
  
  The Law of Unintended Consequences – more powerful that the Laws of Physics.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:14pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, its owned by Tencent. You have to agree to not criticize the CCP government, and to promote socialism. Many have been kicked off already. Basically its ‘Bored Housewives of Shanghai. Full of recipies, pics of new stuff, and pics of them ‘doing lunch’ at posh restaurants. No pics of Winnie The Pooh.
    
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    January 20, 2025 5:40pm
sungsamning

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/01/18/new-bill-promises-reinstatement-back-pay-for-service-members-who-refused-covid-jab-n2184506
New Bill Promises Reinstatement, Back Pay for Service Members Who Refused COVID Jab.
One of the better aspects of seeing the Biden administration in the national rear-view mirror is the return to some sanity for our service men and women. One aspect of this lies in a bill now in consideration, sponsored by, among others, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) that promises not only reinstatement but also back pay for American servicemen and women who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. [I’m sure Chris from marketing will do that here in 5,4,3,2,1, //]
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January 20, 2025 10:46am
- cmm
  
  I’m not holding my breath for a payout, but just a “sorry” would be a start.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:15pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Probably not worth holding your breath for an apology either.
    
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    January 20, 2025 5:41pm
Paul Marsden

So now Mt. Egmont has the same status as a living person, sharing that privilege with the Wanganui River. And we wonder why our country is in such a mess.
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January 20, 2025 10:50am
- JackRabbit
  
  Does it have to pay tax, fill out a census form, and be held responsible for anyone that dies on it?
  
  Does it have to declare offspring? What if it fails to register to vote in the election?
  
  Does anyone know what rights and responsibilities it has? Who talks to it? Who speaks on it’s behalf? Does it have to sign off on activities that happens on it? That being the case, are those that have Power Of Attorney responsible if it causes a death or damage?
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:11am
  - Jack5
    
    Chris Finlayson’s work when he was in Parliament.
    
    Here’s in section 14 of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017:
    
    Te Awa Tupua is a legal person and has all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person.
    
    Section 17 says the river is to be treated as:
    
    (a) an institution for the purpose of applying for registration as a charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005:
    
    (b) a public body for the purposes of clauses 30 and 30A of Schedule 7 of the Local Government Act 2002:
    
    (c) a public authority for the purpose of section 33X of the Maritime Transport Act 1994:
    
    (d) a registered collector of taonga tūturu [perhaps “authentic treasures”] for the purposes of section 14 of the Protected Objects Act 1975:
    
    (e) a public authority for the purposes of the Resource Management Act 1991:
    
    (f) a body corporate for the purpose of applying to be a heritage protection authority under section 188 of the Resource Management Act 1991:
    
    (g) a public body for the purposes of sections 4 and 35 of the Walking Access Act 2008.
    
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    January 20, 2025 1:07pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Imagine the size of the covid jabs!
    
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    January 20, 2025 1:18pm
- Cassandra
  
  During the Wars when Taranaki tribes moved/were driven south through Wanganui to Wellington, a relationship ensued which was akin to a partnership. Similar to that between the lady spider and her man.
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:31am
- Local Miller
  
  Do they pay tax?
  
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  January 20, 2025 11:55am
- Taieri
  
  So now Mt. Egmont has the same status as a living person
  —————-
  Wonder what gender will it identify with?
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:00pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Alphabet genders.
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:24pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Taieri: I understand that in te ao Maori, mountains are always male. Old Taranakians – such as me – always referred to “the mountain” – as everyone called it – as a she, as in “She’s got a good covering of snow for this time of year.”
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:38pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  When it erupts who gets to take the blame?
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:26pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    The idiots have not thought that far ahead. Nor have they watched the Billy Connolly movie, “The Man Who Sued God”. The lead character, played by Connolly, successfully sued the Catholic church as God’s representative on Earth, for the costs of his boat that was destroyed by lightning – “An Act of God”, and therefore insurance wouldn’t pay out.
    
    I can’t wait until someone sues Iwi for when the next flood happens, for a river belonging to the Iwi.
    
    You can’t have a tree, river, or mountain enjoying all the freedoms of being a legal person, without the responsibilities of a legal person.
    
    This stupidity needs to be challenged in a court of law.
    
    Eight local Māori tribes and the government will share guardianship of the sacred mountain on the west coast of the North Island, in a long-awaited acknowledgement of the indigenous people’s relationship to the mountain, who view it as an ancestor and whanau, or family member.
    
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/new-zealand-gives-mount-taranaki-same-legal-rights-as-a-person
    
    I hope the Iwi have very deep pockets next time it erupts.
    
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    January 20, 2025 1:32pm
  - rjay
    
    If there are no little mountains born then everyone just forgets.
    
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    January 20, 2025 1:43pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Baby mountains are called hills.
      
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      January 20, 2025 3:10pm
Skippytony

Oh, and thanks again to the NIMBY dolphin huggers who pushed the yacht racing out of Lyttleton.

There goes another few million that Chch didnt need….
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January 20, 2025 11:14am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Didn’t see any dolphins at the Auckland Sail GP races yesterday.
  Must have smarter dolphins up here. They figured out the race course and stayed away.
  
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  January 20, 2025 12:26pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    Dolphins are one of the smartest non humans. They are not stupid to swim into an oncoming boat. Unless they have had enough and want to go out in a blaze of glory.
    
    And they can move very quickly at a tangent to a boat’s course, up to 15 metres per second. The width of a yacht in America’s cup is a maximum of of 5 metres. The maximum recorded speed of a yacht in the America’s cup is 55 knots or roughly 16 metres per second.
    
    And they regularly dive 50 metres, up to a maximum of 300 metres, for minutes at a time. Some species can dive up to 800 metres.
    
    The underwater part of a yacht as used in Americas cup is usually less than 5 meters.
    
    And like all large fish, they can hear boats, including the direction they are headed, from kilometers away.
    
    Being as fast, if not faster than the yachts in most circumstances, and being 20 times as maneuverable, dolphins seen close to the yachts in Akaroa were probably racing the yachts, as Pelorus Jack did with the Inter Islander years ago.
    
    Or maybe they are playing dare devil for a bit of excitement: likes cats do – wait and then sprint across in the path of incoming traffic; or birds that swoop down in front of an incoming car in order to ride the updraft.
    
    I’ve never seen the council shut down Memorial Ave in Christchurch, because a bunch of cats used to play daredevil. Cats on either side of the road, and taking turns to run out in the front of the traffic, cheered on by their mates on the footpath. Cat Adrenalin rush.
    
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    January 20, 2025 12:56pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Correct. Many years ago, a mate & I were out on his 16 ft. power boat fishing, out from doubtless Bay. We were trolling, and I noticed a pod of dolphins about 200 m. away, and suggested we head toward them – w were doing about 7 knots.
      The dolphins heard us, turned toward us, and started swimming along side us. I told my mate to put the throttle down & we got up to about 25 kts. The dolphins easily kept up with us, then started leaping across our path close in front of us – they were having a ball. We slowed down & they started to turn away – so I whistled them – like you do a dog. Several of them broke off & came back to us. One was swimming close the boat on it’s side on the surface looking up at us, so I lay down on the deck, reached over & scratched it on the belly – it stayed for a few moments then swam off to join its mates.
      It was an encounter that I will never forget – it was back in the summer of 1972 – amazing experience.
      
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      January 20, 2025 3:39pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Dolphins are far smarter than the humans who stopped the racing in Lyttleton.
        
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        January 20, 2025 4:56pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Thanks for sharing. That’s so cool.
        
        5 0
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        January 20, 2025 4:59pm
I remember when

Incoming rainmaker to sweep over Auckland, Northland: NZ Herald.
“Heavy rain could also plague the Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne on Tuesday.”

‘Plague’ Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne?
Are the usual descriptive words not ‘scary’ enough?
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January 20, 2025 11:30am
- greybeard
  
  I wish we had some rain “plaguing” Kapiti right now.
  
  8 0
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  January 20, 2025 12:21pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  My house is getting painted right now. Painter knows rain is here later today until Wed morning.
  Ever seen what happens to wet acrylic paint when it rains? I have. Then the stupid painter did it all over again. Washed off twice before he gave up.
  
  7 2
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  January 20, 2025 12:30pm
  - Inandout
    
    SO, are you sure he is tradesman?
    
    4 1
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    January 20, 2025 1:09pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Tradesman who knows weather, just like boaties do.
      Right now on the Shore is gusty wind – squalls tomorrow, then settled drizzle.
      Wed about 11am will be good.
      Hell? What would I know? I don’t work for TV1 weather ffs!!!
      
      3 2
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      January 20, 2025 5:01pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Oh, I missed the meaning ‘Inandout.’
      He was a young guy who was told to just do it. He did, twice!
      Yes they live amongst us.
      
      2 1
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      January 20, 2025 6:26pm
cmm

Aussies must be wondering if Trump can give them a few pointers on closing their eastern border.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/kiwi-woman-set-on-fire-by-ex-partner-in-brisbane-family-devastated/M2MNSHSUDVGEZKABAGNMTAH45I/
5 3
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January 20, 2025 11:54am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  I hope she makes it. I have been burnt and needed grafts.
  Middlemore Burns Clinic is a real eye opener.
  
  5 1
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  January 20, 2025 12:33pm
  - MCōs
    
    What was it that opened your eye?
    
    0 6
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    January 20, 2025 4:06pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Thinking I was bad done by and needed two grafts to my knee.
      Then a little 9 – 12 year od girl spilt hot milk from the microwave down her front.
      She screamed all night. I held her hand for a while.
      As I said, an eye opener as to the burn victims.
      
      7 0
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      January 20, 2025 6:30pm
Pope Punctilious II

Martyn Bradbury rages against the government’s timely overhaul of the Waitangi Tribunal. He even stoops to directing the ugly slur “Uncle Tom” at Tama Potaka: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2025/01/20/minister-potaka-cowardly-guts-waitangi-tribunal-in-latest-right-wing-desecration-of-the-treaty/.
I’m impressed with the minister’s initiative in turning over the tribunal membership. More of this please – for too long, our institutions have been under dominated by activists and wokesters.
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January 20, 2025 12:35pm
- Swifty
  
  Another fact-free, bile-filled, abusive and name-calling piece of nothingness from Bradbury.
  
  Is that the best he’s got? Calling people names?
  
  My, how the left have fallen.
  
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  January 20, 2025 1:35pm
  - Dave
    
    Oops. Accidentally reported. Mods, please ignore.
    
    Yes, a rather intemperate response. Did he use the same language when bureaucrats, Mahuta, and local councils were ‘gut[ting]’, if I can borrow his language, democracy and equality of representation?
    
    As for the ‘desecration of the Treaty’ – when and why did he decide it was the eternal, perfect object of religious veneration, rather than a historical artefact to be looked at as dispassionately and sceptically as any other product of imperfect humans, constrained by their circumstances and no more able to see the future than we can?
    
    7 0
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    January 20, 2025 2:19pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Tama has an office for constituents in Rostrevor Street, Hamilton. That four name useless MP for Waikato-Hauraki could not be bothered to have an office for constituents to consult her.
  
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  January 20, 2025 1:38pm
Jack5

Trouble continues to trail like wake from the Cook Islands-registered tanker arrested in Finland for allegedly sabotaging power and internet cables.

Could that mean even a remote possibility of trouble for NZ taxpayers – despite apparent dismissal of this possibility by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade when the incident occurred?

Following Finland’s seizure of the ship, the Eagle S, and the anchor it’s alleged to have dragged across the cables, Finnish authorities laid charges against the ship, and there are suggestions injured parties might also sue the ship’s owner.

Now a lawyer for the owner, Dubai based Dubai-based Caravella LLC FZ, says it may abandon the vessel.

This would at least leave some moral responsibility with the Cook Islands for the fate of crew, from India and Georgia.

Expensive and drawn out international legal action is a possibility over the cable damage. Sea lawyers will likely try to bring the Cook Islands into the action as a more tangible target than a Dubai company. Flags of convenience typically provide tax avoidance. Providing nationality for tankers of Russia’s “dark fleet” to beat sanctions on oil is another level.

NATO has expressed support for Finland over the Eagle S. NATO’s secretary-general Mark Rutte, said: “Ship captains must understand that potential threats to our infrastructure will have consequences, including possible boarding, impounding and arrest.”

A joint statement from the leaders of Finland, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden said any attack against their infrastructure would be met with a “robust and determined response”.

What are possible effects of this on NZ? As posted before, Section 5 of the Cook Islands Constitution Act 1954 says:

External affairs and defence

Nothing in this Act or in the Constitution shall affect the responsibilities of Her Majesty the Queen in right of New Zealand for the external affairs and defence of the Cook Islands, those responsibilities to be discharged after consultation by the Prime Minister of New Zealand with the Premier of the Cook Islands.

Consitutional lawyers as well as sea lawyers in a range of countries. The fees!

International reputation comes into consideration. An NZ link with “dark fleet” tankers allegedly ripping up the communications and power lines of NATO members?

The Eagle S has been in trouble before. Authorities in Tema, Ghana, in September 2023, found 24 “deficiencies” in the ship. Lloyds List also reports the Russian insurer Ingosstrakh terminated Eagle S insurance before August over the ship’s poor condition.

The NZ Consulate in Dubai might check on the nationality of the shareholdes in the company that owns the Eagle S. NATO probably already has.

A general background of flags of convenience registration:

https://maritimepage.com/ship-registries-and-flag-of-convenience/

Role of country registering ships under its flag:

https://yourmaritime.com/blog-news/ship-registration-and-flags-of-convenience-legal-implications-and-industry-impact
9 1
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January 20, 2025 1:32pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  The barge that grounded off Westport is registered in that FoC Niue!!!!
  
  So does NZ have 2 FoCs now, Niue and Cook Is. Remember the Marshall Is are a state in a relationship with the USA!!!
  
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  January 20, 2025 3:01pm
- Taieri
  
  The Cook Island Registry is run as a private company Cook Islands Maritime Ltd, a couple of its directors are New Zealanders, one of whom is a failed property developer. At present there are 259 ships on the register.
  The CI Maritime paid the CI Government in 2022-2023 a princely sum of USD100000 (!) for the privilege of using the country’s flag.
  Not a bad deal is it?…
  
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  January 20, 2025 4:14pm
Chris Nisbet

Honestly, what sort of country are we living in, that this sort of crap even gets the time of day!?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/539362/whanganui-council-iwi-agreement-how-will-this-work

“At its meeting on 13 February, the council is to consider signing up to the binding partnership – described in December by mayor Andrew Tripe as an unprecedented opportunity and “a world-first indigenous-council partnership””

And the PM thinks it’s Seymour’s bill that’s divisive.
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January 20, 2025 4:25pm
- Swifty
  
  Co-governance.
  
  And, instead of cost etc being described as ‘minimal’ – the good people of Whanganui deserve to know EXACTLY what this is forecast to cost out over years, EXACTLY what benefits to citizens and ratepayers are forecast and EXACTLY which politicians will retire from public life is those costs are exceeded or benefits not delivered in full and on-time.
  
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  January 20, 2025 5:05pm
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    Not to mention that people we didn’t vote for get to make decisions for us.
    
    7 0
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    January 20, 2025 6:42pm
Paul Marsden

Hobson’s Pledge is on to the insanity. Moreover, I’d like to know Mr. Luxon’s position on it?
11 0
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January 20, 2025 4:50pm
Chuck Bird

This ceasefire just allows Hamas time to regroup. Hopefully, it will not allow them to rearm. A two-state solution is not a solution.

Gazan Leader EXPOSES The SHOCKING Reason For Accepting Ceasefire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t85bJURjQO4
6 3
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January 20, 2025 5:11pm
Swifty

Some would look at this as a sign of desperation – risking years in the can for a few hundred bucks.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/takapuna-restaurant-tokyo-bay-staffers-protect-themselves-with-chairs-as-armed-robbers-raid-eatery/46HPNRNPFJGFTKZ2AMDHDRS7YA/

I look at this as a sign of extreme stupidity (knowing that most diners would pay with eftpos or credit card) and I am far more likely to be right.

Leaving your DNA all around the place is another clue too! 😃
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January 20, 2025 5:33pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Some People Are Scum. (SPAS)
  
  3 0
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  January 20, 2025 6:46pm
Jack5

Prices of cattle gallstone have been pushed to twice the price of gold as traders hunt them for Chinese traditional medicine.

Rustlers are slaughtering cattle in Brazil seeking them, and in Australia slaughter-house workers have ben fired for pilfering the stones, reports the Wall Street Journal.

It says traders are paying up to $US5800 an ounce for the customers in China. That’s about $NZ10,335.

The newspaper says for one Chinese remedy for strokes, gallstones are oten packaged with parts from endangered species, such as rhino horns.

Gold for delivery in one month today traded in New York at $US2,673.50 an ounce
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January 20, 2025 8:39pm
Tauhei Notts

I note that Sky News, BBC, Al Jazeera and Fox have tomorrow’s 6 a.m. bunfight on but the Clinton News Network and TVNZ won’t.
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January 20, 2025 9:31pm
- Ghost
  
  CNN have it live. Why should tvnz, it’s nothing to do with us.
  
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  January 20, 2025 9:41pm

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