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January 23, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 January 2025

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

I’m all for growth, but National’s policy of opening the doors to all & sundry will result in the same tourism outcomes as the pre COVID period. These include overcrowding, inflated prices and increased danger on the roads.

I question the value of some of this tourism to NZ. In particular, those Chinese tourists who stay in Chinese owned & operated hotels, travel on Chinese owned buses etc, where all of the profits go back to Chinese parent companies. “Locals” working for these companies are in reality Chinese Nationals, regardless of immigration status (and who also need accommodation here). As far as I can see, all NZ gets out of it is some GST. I think it’s a bad bargain.

Brace yourself for media stories about poor and expensive housing in Queenstown.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/539685/tourism-growth-a-very-serious-investment-in-infrastructure-needed-says-mayor
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January 23, 2025 8:01am
- Mark Hanley
  
  I agree about the issues and low returns of tourism. However the elephant in the room is the huge debt left behind by the hapless and corrupt Adern / Hipkins double act…. it needs to be repaid.
  
  I’m looking forward to Luxons state of the nation speech where he is tipped to lay out his plan for disbanding NZ s unfair monopolistic competition. Imagine how much spending and growth will result from lower grocery prices, thinner bank margins, and lower construction costs.
  
  Until new infrastructure is built and the conditions are set to allow new wealth generating industries to develop and prosper (AI and rare earths leap to mind), low return tourism will be required to keep the lights on.
  
  Thank goodness we have an ethical, clever, bold, and visionary PM in charge!
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:57am
  - Jack5
    
    What monopolism will the PM talk about?
    
    What’s to stop a big international supermarket firm from setting up in NZ now? You don’t need a licence to run a supermarket, perhaps except for the wine section.
    
    Retail prices at supermarket relate to the topography of this country: a mountainous group of islands, remote from the rest of the world, with a long, narrow shape and earthquakes challenging its internal transport.
    
    Thinner bank margins? From new competition?
    
    Including subsidiaries, 27 banks are registered with the RBNZ to operate in NZ. These include China Construction Bank, the world’s third biggest bank; Bank of China, the world’s fourth biggest bank; and JP Morgan Chase, the world’s fifth biggest bank.
    
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    January 23, 2025 1:53pm
    - Mark Hanley
      
      All.it takes is 3 seconds of searching Jack /Matt/Pope …..
      
      When the final report into the $22 billion sector was delivered, it established that competition in the industry was muted, and that competitors who wanted to enter or expand in the market were up against significant challenges. It was also established that the supermarkets were making about $430 million a year in excess profits – a figure that saw public trust in the supermarkets sharply plummet.
      
      New Zealand’s big four banks have the second highest return on equity (RoE) among banks in comparable small, open economies, according to the Reserve Bank.
      
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      January 23, 2025 2:49pm
      - Jack5
        
        Supermarkets making “excess profits”. Given there are virtually no regulations blocking new entrants how are profits judged to be “excess”.
        
        Sounds like Muldoon socialism to me.
        
        Woolworths Group of Australia in its 2024 annual report wrote down the value of its subsidiary Woolworths NZ by $1.6 billion. That’s separate from the $14 million it spent rebranding the markets from “Countdown”.
        
        I wonder whether Woolworths Group regrets buying Countdown.
        
        As for the Big Four Aussie trading banks’ NZ margins: one reason for high profit margin can be a risky environment.
        
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        January 23, 2025 9:29pm
- Gordon Shumway
  
  It’s disappointing how many Kiwibloggers automatically uptick this sort of xenophobic nonsense about Chinese travellers. Exactly which ones are the Chinese owned/operated hotels, fully staffed by Chinese workers and filled with Chinese travellers? What proportion of the total market are these hotels?
  
  International tourists fund our schools, hospitals and NZ Super because central government gets much more from the GST, PAYE, border taxes, excise taxes (fuel and grog), etc etc etc than it puts back into tourism.
  
  93% of Kiwis say international tourism is good for NZ, but then some Charlie comes along and shoots from the hip like this.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:37am
  - Ghost
    
    Many shops down here bounced back after covid thanks to the Chinese tourists coming back.
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:56am
  - septic skeptic
    
    You are partly correct. Chinese tourists look for quality experiences the same as anyone else. I’ve been out of the industry for nearly a decade, but before I left there was a significant increase in self drive independent travelers. That brought its own problems. The issue you refer to is poor quality package tours. I was aware of some abysmal stuff and can confirm that tourists were told it was unsafe to go out into the towns cities by themselves. This in order to ensure all their money was spent in approved shops and restaurants. But the issue of low grade tourism has been recognized for well over 20 years. At various stages there have been plans to focus on quality not quantity. But as soon as there is a downturn the priority is Bums on seats and cost/benefit analysis is grossly overstated IMO.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:03am
  - Graeme Hall
    
    Here is one listed on the NZX & controlled by Chinese operators located in Asia. It is about to be taken over by its parent.
    
    About Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand Limited
    Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand Limited (NZX:MCK) is the only NZX listed hotel owner – operator with 18 owned / leased / franchised hotels
    based in New Zealand under the Millennium, Grand Millennium, M Social, Copthorne and Kingsgate brands. As part of the Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
    group, we are proud to be part of a global network of over 120 properties in gateway cities across Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East and New
    Zealand. MCK is also the majority shareholder in land developer CDL Investments New Zealand Limited (NZX:CDI) and also has property interests in
    Australia through its Kingsgate Group subsidiaries including a 50% ownership interest in the Sofitel Brisbane Central through a joint venture
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:22am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    So I was on holiday in the South Island recently. There is a well-worn trail that runs from Christchurch via Tekapo to Queenstown and on to Milford Sound. There was a stream of buses carrying Asian passengers on that route, and the stopping points en route were crowded with the same.
    
    Perhaps Gordon, you might like to go and see for yourself, and then report back.
    
    “The New Zealand arm of the China Travel Service is majority-owned by the Chinese Government …. they were keen users of China Travel’s week-long bus tours of the North and South Islands.
    
    “They like to travel that way because they know it’s value for money, and they have a Chinese commentary and Chinese meals arranged.”
    
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/the-monitor/128768913/tourism-cautiously-optimistic-as-bookings-build-despite-another-summer-without-the-chinese-visitors-who-once-dominated-overseas-arrivals
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:24am
- Taieri
  
  As far as I can see, all NZ gets out of it is some GST.
  —————–
  
  Don’t they all also support various local suppliers and pay their income tax in NZ?
  
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  January 23, 2025 12:01pm
Yvette

Hansard – Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill – First Reading

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) : I move, That the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill be now read a first time. At the appropriate time I will seek leave for this bill to be sent to the Justice and Electoral Committee for consideration.
This Parliament should do New Zealanders an invaluable service today. When considering these so-called principles, we must start from the premise that Parliament created this historical anomaly, so it is Parliament that must correct it. We must also ensure that it is clear that this is not an attack on the treaty itself, but on the insertion of the term “the principles of the Treaty” into legislation.
Sitting date: 8 Jun 2005
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/47HansD_20050608_00001017/principles-of-the-treaty-of-waitangi-deletion-bill-first

Time to get on with it, Winston – there doesn’t seem to be a Hikoi from Hell (te Pati membership drive) coming yet on this matter

In fact, are NZF’s 24 deletions of Treaty references justified because the Treaty itself is not actually written into legislation, in any of its many versions –
or is that why it isn’t?
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January 23, 2025 8:02am
- Tricati
  
  And then there’s this little gem – From Hobson’s Pledge:
  Long story short, a stealthy iwi takeover of Whanganui District Council is underway.
  Whanganui iwi and the Crown are currently negotiating a Treaty settlement and as part of it they want to embed several co-governance dynamics into the Whanganui District Council.
  This would mean that co-governance would be locked into the council via legislation. So much for an end to co-governance!
  Additionally, the ‘relationship agreement’ is set to include a large amount of land transferred to iwi and the establishment of a charitable trust run by iwi and council.
  I know you’re able to appreciate the significance and finality of these kinds of decisions and how important it is that we fight them before it is too late. Once settlements are finalised in legislation, it is all but impossible to unwind them. National especially likes to put things in Treaty settlements and then hold up their hands and say “can’t change it now!”
  Our friends over at Democracy Action say:
  While Mayor Andrew Tripe and the council appear to be largely supportive of this initiative – what the mayor calls ‘a world-first indigenous-council partnership’ – the council is encouraging its citizens to have a say on the proposals.
  Under the plan iwi would participate in decision-making in the joint management of lands, resources, and socio-economic strategies. If approved the proposals would bind future councils, future generations.
  This is a matter of utmost importance to the people of Whanganui, but it is also a glaring red flag and warning siren for the rest of the country. If Whanganui iwi succeed in gaining this power, other iwi groups will attempt to obtain their own co-governance powers in similar ways. Council co-governance, coming to a town near you!
  
  Has National (Luxon) been gaslighting the country, and supporters, in that they actually intend to progress co-governance.
  Its like rust – it never sleeps.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:41am
  - Yvette
    
    Does the Waitangi Tribunal, with Richard Preeble and others now involved, have to prove precedent, customary right or where the Treaty states that such city council representation applies or is intended (in 2025)?
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:24am
  - KiwiSapper
    
    It is this latest attempt by Wanganui councillor’s to sneakily create maori seats on the council for unelected maori.
    Their last attempt was dropped when post central government election legislation required the council to offer citizens a referendum … which they knew would return a majority result against.
    This latest piece of skullduggery has had little publicity, it only appeared in the local paper yesterday for the first announcement and the council decision is to be made in about 13 days time. Naturally, the paper carefully avoided giving many details of the secret agreements, quoting it was essential. Just one example being the removal of the optional spelling of “Wanganui,” either with or without an ‘h’\”.as correct and legal. Just one of the many maori requirements carefully withheld from citizen’s view.
    
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    January 23, 2025 12:16pm
    - Yvette
      
      A Maori kaumātua informed me that the ‘h’ was, after all that, silent
      A bit like –
      What is difference between sibilant and fricative?
      A non-sibilant fricative is a fricative consonant (a consonant that is made by blowing air) that, unlike sibilant fricatives, don’t have that high frequency or hissing sound sibilant fricatives do. For example, “h” is a non-sibilant fricative, but “s” is a sibilant fricative. 17 Mar 2024
      
      oh, fricative! I thought
      same with the unelective selective fricative seats
      
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      January 23, 2025 1:20pm
      - Paulus
        
        Tariana Turei never pronounced it with the H.
        
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        January 23, 2025 2:54pm
  - kiwimike
    
    Yes Luxon & National, who support Co=Governance have been gas lighting NZ voters/Citizens with this.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:46pm
cmm

It’s amazing how some issues go in and out of fashion.

Does anyone remember period poverdee? All the young misses missing school on certain days and reports of teachers buying tampons for the girls so they could come to school.

Since I still see menstrual products on the supermarket shelves, I assume that female biology hasn’t gone through dramatic evolution in the last 5 years.

Maybe $5 a month was never really a huge issue?
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January 23, 2025 8:07am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  As the Ardern government couldn’t fix any real problems, they had to solve imaginary problems.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:13am
  - cmm
    
    They didn’t even solve period poverdee either.
    
    It was just a deflection that resulted in a bunch of hand-wringing, some aspirational guff and nothing else.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:39am
    - Paulus
      
      Slightly off but I read today the following being subserviant to poverdee.
      The NZ big banks (A-rated to AA-rated) have deposits of at least $500 billion.
      So go for a loan, I dare you, unless you are a first home buyer or a new customer.
      The rest can continue to get stuffed.
      
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      January 23, 2025 2:57pm
- alloytoo
  
  It’s an issue for concern trolls.
  
  What was possibly a discrete visit to the school nurse has become a stick to beat capitalism.
  
  Ignoring the rather obvious fact that market economies make such products available and affordable in the 21st century.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:16am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  You are not going to tell us when that stupid no for Northland for Labour told Obama we have period poverty? Hahahaga, what a loser she was to say they ffs
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:19am
- Dougal10
  
  The schools have cupboards with these products in them which girls can access, the thing that has changed is the direct line from the dpmc to the media advertising how good dear leader was.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:46am
- TripeWryter
  
  cmm: I was sympathetic to the cause. The mother of my children had a horrendous start to her menarche.
  Rolled-up toilet paper and flannels until Dad was paid, and he complained that he had to buy extra pads in addition to his wife’s.
  My daughters aged 13 and 11 began their periods in the same week. We were ready for the older one; we’d expected her periods for a year or more.
  But no, her younger sister, much to her surprise as ours, went first.
  The pads and the tampons were not suitable for her (an individual thing) so she and I had to drive to the supermarket where we had to discuss what was best for her.
  While there were mothers in the aisle who discreetly offered help other women made known their view to me that they thought a father having a role in this part of his daughters’ lives was ‘creepy’.
  Two days later my other daughter happily announced to me that she was now a ‘member of the Blood Sisters’ Club’.
  Periods were expensive. They did need the tampons and the pads. As they got older they also needed pain-killers.
  That week blew my budget.
  No girl should be embarrassed or made to feel awkward about something she can do nothing about.
  That’s why I am sympathetic to the cause and I don’t begrudge them any taxpayer help. My late father-in-law was niggardly to his wife and daughters.
  On the other hand I don’t feel so sympathetic about the clamour for free school lunches. It’s a parents’ job to feed their kids, not the state’s.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:58am
  - Anthony Melchett
    
    What’s the difference between providing your kids with pads or a ham sandwich? You say the can’t do anything about periods but they can’t do anything about being hungry either.
    
    You had kids you pay. Why should I pay for your kids sanitary products?
    
    It’s a parents job to provide everything for their kids, not the states. You can’t pick and choose to suit your cause.
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:49am
  - wsk12345
    
    It’s not expensive. I’ve been buying them for a long time. A pack of tampons and one of pads is about $10 and lasts 2-3 months. Paracetamol and ibuprofen can now be got on prescription for free.
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:46am
    - TripeWryter
      
      wsk12345: in the 90s, and I was on the DPB, I found them expensive. I was buying for two girls.
      I don’t remember their packs lasting two or three months.
      Nor would I put pressure on the girls to make them feel they had to eke them out for two-three months.
      There was no mother in the house. Dad had to figure out stuff by himself. C’est la vie.
      
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      January 23, 2025 6:06pm
  - cmm
    
    Hey I am sorry your wife’s arsehole dad didn’t take care of her needs. Having an alcoholic father I can somewhat relate – there was always money for a dozen more bottles of wine even when other things were spare.
    
    I seriously doubt that $5 a month or whatever really needs government interference. That’s 20 cents a day.
    Amazing that families can find money for booze, chippies and fizzies but not 20c a day for their daughter’s menstrual needs.
    
    If 20c a day is going to break the bank then I suggest not having children.
    
    Males need about 500 more calories per day on average. That is a biological fact. That’s about the same as a hamburger. Should we also make a government programme to pay families with boys $5 per boy per day for their biological needs?
    
    Bottom line is that if you take a 20 cent a day “problem” and get the government to “solve” it it will end up costing $1 a day.
    
    No practical steps were ever made to sort out period poverdee. It was just a way to show she “cared” and try to pull in some sympathetic votes.
    
    The problem went away on its own. I suggest that means it was never a real problem.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:52am
  - Taieri
    
    That’s why I am sympathetic to the cause and I don’t begrudge them any taxpayer help.
    —————-
    
    And the nappies…the taxpayer should also provide the nappies. In fact, the taxpayer should provide everything…
    
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    January 23, 2025 12:03pm
  - kiwimike
    
    I concur with period stuff.
    However I take exception to the school lunches.
    I had a hot meal right through primary and secondary school. Lunch that is.
    We also had a tuck shop at Secondary.
    At both my secondary schools a Late lunch pass was avail, if you had sports or band practice, which on some days was bliss if there was extra steamed pudding !!!
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:51pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Most of the “issues” that NZ clutches their collective pearls over are planned distractions usually initiated by over-funded qangos and facillitated by the media.
  The aim is to keep everyone distracted for weeks or months while the actual problems are ignored.
  There will be another one soon. Guaranteed.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:28am
- thirteenstars
  
  That was just the tip of the spear. It has since morphed into an ideological fetish and obsession with the menstrual cycle, the general thrust being that women are disadvantaged by carrying the burden of a natural process.
  
  The postmodern feminist perspective has long been that women are generally oppressed by their bodies** in a variety of ways that men are not and therefore women are by default victims; victims of men.
  
  This is crammed into their heads via various propaganda, often at school, and sets up a level of cognitive dissonance and hatred of the self that results in dysphoria, disfunction and neuroticisms which are the characteristics of many modern women.
  
  **you might recall the “I hate my breasts!” phenomena of a while back.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:57am
Pope Punctilious II

If you’ve been losing sleep about the scourge of kauri dieback, worry no more. Because maatauranga experts are fixing the problem by playing recordings of whale song to the sick trees. And it’s an affordable solution too, costing only $4M of taxpayers’ money, via the National Science Challenges program! https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2501/S00047/revealed-4-million-to-subsidise-whale-oil-is-outrageous.htm
I knew about the application of ground whale bones (“kauri & whales were once brothers, dontcha know”), but is the first I’ve heard of the musical dimension of the kauri therapy. Funny country we live in, init.
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January 23, 2025 8:07am
- Ghost
  
  How can it be the first you’ve heard about it, kiwiblog had articles about it last year.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:27am
  - Yabster
    
    some people aren’t on kiwiblog everyday Ghost….
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:45am
    - Ghost
      
      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/09/govt_funding_playing_of_whale_songs_to_heal_trees.html
      
      I’d say more likely people have crap memories on what they’ve read and commented about
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:58am
      - Matt Long
        
        Did anyone in that post mention a cost of 4 million Ghost? I’ll wait.
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:37am
  - Anthony Melchett
    
    So that makes it OK?
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:51am
    - Ghost
      
      Umm, what are you reading into saying kiwiblog ran this last year?
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:53am
hookerphil

Yesterday it was mentioned on G.D. how nothing beats Wellington on a good day, particularly in regard to the cricket.
Yesterday Wellington were playing Canterbury at the Basin and I had it on watching some of it. Gee, the whole set up, crowd, commentary and associated vibe reflects very poorly compared to the Australian Big Bash.
Anyway there was an extensive interview at one stage with the Wellington Coach who went on a fair bit about what a great team atmosphere they had built up, how welcoming it all was for any new players and particularly any of different cultures and generally the friendships being forged will last forever amongst this great team. Nothing like a team BBQ to create a wining culture etc. etc.
Canterbury beat Wellington who remain on the bottom of the table.
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January 23, 2025 8:07am
- pdm
  
  T20 cricket leaves me cold and I do not watch any of it.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:38am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  The standard of cricket this summer has been abysmal. No internationals, low quality domestic t20 (any half decent players are playing overseas) with the worst commentators you can rustle up climbing over themselves to be the most woke while discussing what they would eat from the food trucks instead of offering any kind of insight into the match.
  
  Scott Stevenson is atrocious and it sounds like Tim Roxborough has never played or watched a game of cricket in his life.
  
  On top of that, they refer to locations in Maori only as well as the big Maori words when a boundary is scored or wicket taken.
  
  Congratulations TVNZ, you have ruined cricket coverage in New Zealand. It would be better if it wasn’t shown at all.
  
  Let’s just hope sky gets the rights back in a years time but by then the product may be so damaged its not economically viable.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:59am
- MCōs
  
  I said you can’t beat Wellington on a good 😊 day!
  That was after the Wellington women soundly thrashed Canterbury and before blokes game
  I agree the commentators are generally pitiful except Mark Richardson. Maybe TVNZ ain’t got the do re me. I suppose that’s the downside of free to air.
  In the meantime there’s about three other T20 competitions going on around the world with enough Kiwis to make up a pretty good team.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:10am
- NothingLeft
  
  The “nothing” option is definitely the one to pick given that it beats wellington on a good day.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:22am
artemisia

DEI under bigly fire in the USA. Federal only atm, but other organisations are quite likely to take the hint and transfer suitable resources to actual productive work.

US govt workers in diversity jobs to be put on leave as programmes ordered shut by Donald Trump

Sounds like Brown Town headlines may have reached the White House. Federal department and agency bosses are also required to ask “employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these (DEI) programmes by using coded or imprecise language”.

Be interesting to know how much resource is recovered from this initiative, especially if it spreads more widely. Won’t be Mr Musk’s $1trillion savings but likely enough for quite a few schools, hospitals, roads, deportation planes …..

Will climate change hires and related resources be next in the gun?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/us-govt-workers-in-diversity-jobs-to-be-put-on-leave-as-programmes-ordered-shut-by-donald-trump/FCKDTS4CVNGJDC2MF34NTKWKJ4/
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January 23, 2025 8:08am
- john1234
  
  Many corporates had already started. As you say, this gives the slow ones a nudge so the trickle will hopefully soon be a torrent.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:12am
- alloytoo
  
  One hopes that Mr Luxon is paying attention.
  
  We are downstream from the US socio politically and hopefully the sanity will flow throughout the Anglosphere.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:18am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “One hopes that Mr Luxon is paying attention.”
    
    I don’t think it matters.
    Luxon is clearly still middle management.
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:04am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Speaking of Luxon paying attention.
    He should look at how Trumps approval with the younger generation has soared as people warm to and agree with what he intends to do.
    ‘YouGov – President Trump’s favorability rating among ages 18-29
    January 2017
    🟢 Favorable: 30% (-27)
    🔴 Unfavorable: 57%
    January 2025
    🟢 Favorable: 53% (+11)
    🔴 Unfavorable: 42%’
    Apart from what Trump is going to do I think a big part is that Trump actually stands for something.
    People like leadership. For so long we have had a Political class which tried to appeal to all and I think that has meant a race to mediocrity.
    Perhaps if Luxon actually stood for something the Nats would rise above 30%
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:05am
    - Mark Hanley
      
      A-hem AIR….. Trump is president for 4 years with no prospect of re-election, Luxon is PM for 3, his re-election is key. That is quite a difference requiring starkly different approaches.
      
      Luxon has wisely started with taming inflation, he knew the pain that will generate but forged on with his clever vision for NZ.
      
      Luxon has also identified manageable priorities to tackle whilst the shackles of recession limit activity (huge changes in education, law and order, and economic settings have already been enacted) .
      
      I’m looking forward to Luxons state of the nation speech where more visionary, necessary, and difficult policies will be laid out
      
      4 7
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      January 23, 2025 10:30am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Perhaps
        But Trumps vision and leadership meant he expanded his support enough to get re- elected
        With National stuck on 30 will they actually get re-elected?
        It’s very close
        Sometimes doing the risk free don’t frighten the horses approach is not enough
        But tell us, what does Luxon stand for?
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:43am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        A-hem All in Red. Taming inflation causes voters a lot of pain so is definitely not risk free
        
        Luxon stands for.
        – exceptional management of the National Party to take them from a record losing rabble under Collins to victors.
        – prioritization of the basics and expertly managing his team of ministers to produce results for Kiwis.
        – building infrastructure and trade connections to improve NZs wealth.
        – elimination of race based policies (its there in black and white, more kbers should try reading the coalition agreements)
        – excellent strategic management including a solid coalition agreement from the offset, quarterly published plans and results, a team of ministers suited to their roles focused on achieving Luxons vision of making NZ the best little country in the world (thx to Luxon Peter’s is remarkably a productive member of that team)
        
        What he doesn’t stand for is asking pointless questions like what do people stand for which is an obvious attempt to denigrate.
        
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        January 23, 2025 12:42pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘elimination of race based policies ’
        As Benedict Yu has pointed out many times he could have removed this from the Public Service Act but hasn’t
        Why not?
        The rest you describe is just about being a good Manager
        Is that what he stands for?
        Let’s see how his speech goes
        Interesting you think asking questions is ‘denigrating’
        To me he comes across as a bland bureaucrat
        
        12 2
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        January 23, 2025 1:06pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        All in Red….
        I’m sure you jnderstand negative generalized questions add nothing to a discussion. If you have a specific evidenced point, please make it so we can discuss.
        
        It is very big of you to finally admit Luxon is a good manager, it’s exactly what the nz government needs right now.
        
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        January 23, 2025 2:18pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Luxon has not tamed inflation.
        That was done by the Reserve Bank, (whacking up interest rates to generate a recession)
        
        Perhaps you could explain how Luxon, in your view, helped tame inflation. Besides increasing Government debt.
        
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        January 23, 2025 8:32pm
    - cmm
      
      Trump has demonstrated how a shadow government should behave. During your time out of office you should be developing policies and be ready to go on day one.
      
      Instead we have what we have in NZ. 15 months in and National still have not decided what they really want to accomplish this term. They are still in research phase.
      
      Of course Luxon’s fence perching makes this much worse. It is not leadership.
      Thank goodness this government has not yet had to face any serious challenges (GFC, pandemic or such).
      
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      January 23, 2025 12:05pm
    - sungsamning
      
      There are all those things, and his attempt to fins a solution to the Tik Tok problem.
      
      1 1
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      January 23, 2025 3:52pm
    - kiwimike
      
      He does, he stands for Co-Governance and all the other Maori Apartheid….
      
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      January 23, 2025 11:58pm
  - Mark Hanley
    
    ACT AND NZ FIRST coalition agreements commit to removing race based policies….. DEI is a race based policy.
    
    14 1
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    January 23, 2025 10:08am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      So why have they not delivered? Let’s not blame Nats because they have stuck word for word what is in the coalition agreement
      
      5 3
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      January 23, 2025 11:00am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        What a load of rubbish CMM.
        
        Luxon has been talking about his priorities repeatedly for 3 years, so his ministers started achieving results (think ram raids and unruly gang tangis) very quickly!
        
        6 3
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        January 23, 2025 12:50pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        I’m not sure what you mean G?
        
        I can’t remember seeing 3 waters, cogovernance of public entities, a maori health authority, pandering to gangs, retention or establishment of local Maori wards without public permission…….. at all this year.
        
        Have you?
        
        5 0
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        January 23, 2025 12:55pm
  - pdm
    
    Unlikely alloytoo.
    
    6 0
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    January 23, 2025 10:11am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  While I am no fan of DEI, applying these measures to cancel DEI in a retrospective manner is a bridge too far.
  
  All future hires should be free of any DEI component, but this measure is laced with potential pitfalls.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:25am
  - wsk12345
    
    Why?
    If your business stopped making widgets would you continue to employ the widget makers?
    
    15 1
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    January 23, 2025 10:49am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Lots of expected downticks, however, ask yourself one question.
    
    Is being removed from a role because you are considered the wrong ethnicity, gender or orientation any better than being appointed for those reasons?
    
    If it was simply a matter of competence, it would be a no brainer, but if you sack a competent person because you have doubts about the process that appointed that person, that opens up a whole can of worms.
    
    I don’t trust DEI as a concept, but it doesn’t follow that every DEI hire is a bad one. If they’re not up to the job, then yes, move them on. But make sure it’s job related.
    
    Put it this way, if you are going to cancel DEI in the hiring process, you can’t make it a consideration in the firing process.
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:58am
    - Jake Dee
      
      This is just about getting more women, ethnic and sexual minorities into jobs, there are specific diversity positions, DEI officers and consultants doing surveys making reports etc.
      If an executive decision has been made that what they are doing is no longer required then those positions would be disestablished and they have to go. Although I guess they will be able to run out their contracts or be bought out of them.
      
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      January 23, 2025 8:40pm
  - cmm
    
    No. Bullshit.
    
    If a DEI hire is in a key position then they need to be replaced so that a competent person can be doing that work.
    
    Now, to be clear, I do not mean that all lesbian firefighters or female Navy commanders should be fired.
    
    Rather they should be assessed and any that have even a whiff of DEI used in their selection process should be fired and replaced with a competent person (regardless of what is in their pants and what they do with it).
    
    9 1
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    January 23, 2025 12:09pm
    - slightlyrighty
      
      DEI is a terrible metric to apply to a position, but it doesn’t always mean that the person selected was wrong for the role.
      
      Perhaps the process needs to be along the lines of “Would this person have been appointed to this role regardless of DEI initiatives?”
      
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      January 23, 2025 12:22pm
      - cmm
        
        “Would this person have been appointed to this role regardless of DEI initiatives?”. That is exactly what eliminating DEI means.
        
        Putting a competent black lesbian is a position is NOT DEI. If they were selected on merit alone, then it is NOT DEI.
        
        But when it is DEI is when there are goals to hire more and the playing field is tilted (as is the case in the NZ military, US state and federal government etc etc).
        
        To say that eliminating DEI will get rid of all the competent blacks, women and gays etc is ridiculous.
        
        Rather, getting rid of DEI means going back to hiring people purely on merit no matter what is in their pants, what colour it is and what they do with it.
        
        It also means that those hired on a basis of DEI should be removed from office and replaced with the most competent person available.
        
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        January 23, 2025 12:42pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        It’s all about cost. If the continued employment of DEI hire is net more expensive to productivity and efficient results focused work culture than a likely unencumbered by DEI replacement hire then of course they should be out on their ear.
        
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        January 23, 2025 5:47pm
- cmm
  
  It has need interesting to observe changes on military contractor websites over the last wee while.
  
  Six months ago, defence contractors such as Rockwell Collins and Lockheed Marton had their websites covered in black people and rainbow flags. The “About Us” and Careers pages were dripping in DEI, affirmative action, etc.
  
  Now the front pages show fighter jets and American flags.
  
  Clearly they have smelled a change on the wind.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:31am
  - Jake Dee
    
    This also shows that they never believed that these programs worked on their intrinsic merits, they just followed them for political influence.
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:55pm
- thirteenstars
  
  “if they know of any efforts to disguise these (DEI) programmes by using coded or imprecise language”
  
  See, this is a sophisticated approach. They are smart enough to know the tactics of the enemy and have made it clear they know how the game is played.
  
  Hopefully it encourages whistleblowers who will have less fear of being cancelled.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:07am
- sungsamning
  
  What’s not to love? And, he has nixed LBJs ‘Affirmative Action’ Executive Order.
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:50pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

US female bishop preaches to Trump on behalf of illegal immigrants, saying that the vast majority of them are not criminals.

Actually, they’re all criminals, by virtue of staying in the US without legal right.

Illegal immigrants – the clue is in the name.
39 3
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January 23, 2025 8:09am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Illegal immigrants – the clue is in the name.’
  
  That’s why they came up with so many euphemisms for the criminality.
  
  Undocumented migrant
  Asylum seeker
  
  Etc
  
  31 1
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  January 23, 2025 9:43am
  - Swifty
    
    Dreamer.
    
    15 0
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    January 23, 2025 10:23am
- My-Gumboot
  
  Yeah and Trump gets Larry, Masayoshi and Sam stump up with $500b worth of AI to cure cancer.
  https://youtu.be/IYUoANr3cMo?si=PTy1KonVkbbkk4vv
  
  Doing more for humanity including LGBTQ++ folks than Right Rev. Mariann Budde would even be able to comprehend.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:47am
- mogg
  
  77 million Americans voted for Trump policies and
  that silly cow decides to tell him she is right and everybody else is wrong. There is no such thing as a transgender child, if there is that means that her god has made a mistake, so really she is also saying that
  she is right and god is wrong.
  
  20 1
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  January 23, 2025 10:28am
  - kowtow
    
    A bit like Pointy Hat Papist Frankie telling everyone to take illegalswhile the Vatican has its own army and walls to keep ’em all safe inside , while the rest of the west has to put up with all sorts of shit.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:05am
  - All_on_Red
    
    You assume she believes in god
    
    10 0
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    January 23, 2025 11:46am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Episcopalian (US Anglican).
      
      Good point.
      
      2 0
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      January 23, 2025 6:57pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Illegals as far as I am concerned are not immigrants, they are criminals end of story, so sick of this shit that illegals wash dishes in restaurants or pick crops, when some one sees an immigrant working , they do not know whether they are illegal or not, getting sick of being lectured to by people making excuses for crime
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:05am
- Jake Dee
  
  Wikipedia tells us
  “In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in Washington, DC, Budde criticized the use of police and National Guard troops to forcibly clear protestors from Lafayette Square ahead of President Donald Trump’s pose for a photo op in front of St. John’s Church, enabling its use “as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:00pm
Matt Long

Trump’s day two actions.
https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1882049424488112306
There rumours of torture of J6 protesters, and that’s why the DC prison won’t release them, apparently US Marshals were sent in yesterday. It doesn’t sound particularly credible, but why not obey the presidential directive?
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January 23, 2025 8:11am
- sungsamning
  
  Well done, Mr President. Keep it up. More liberal tears incoming.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:44am
Paulus

I hope that all the Public Libraries will have pre-ordered Dame Jacinda’s revelation to the World as how she saved us all.
Due to be published in June. and her only appearing to get between NZ$1 millon andNZ1.5 million as an opening bid, when she said she would tell the World.
Her fans will cherish their copy I am sure after queuing outside the bookshops in New Zealand.
Hate to think it will sell above $5, in the box !
39 1
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January 23, 2025 8:13am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Like her last book, in the seconds bin within a month, do laughable a PM was shown up by Judith Collins selling far more books at the same time
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:22am
- pdm
  
  A top seller at $2 shops!!!
  
  But wait there is more.
  
  I heard last night that next week (or soon) there is a TV Documentary – producer `The Fisherman’ Clark Gayford.
  
  22 1
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  January 23, 2025 8:22am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Can’t wait for the ‘Being Chloe’ one too….(silent spewing).
    
    23 0
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    January 23, 2025 8:53am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      🤮
      
      9 0
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      January 23, 2025 9:37am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I bet tvnz will pay well above the odds to broadcast a doco that no one will watch.
    
    19 1
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    January 23, 2025 9:01am
    - RoboRob
      
      Money go round in action. We the tax payer fund this crap through various agencies like NZ on Air. Then Tax payer owned TVNZ pays $s for it. NZ on air defends its investment by quoting the sale to TVNZ. Of course its us paying for the doco, us paying for tvnz to buy it and Jacinda and her mates clipping the ticket.
      
      12 0
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      January 23, 2025 11:04am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Public sector-led growth at its finest!
        
        0 0
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        January 23, 2025 6:59pm
  - kevn
    
    pdm… NZs version of the markles.
    
    21 0
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    January 23, 2025 9:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Note they booted him from moving house, now an everyday NZer and that program is very popular
    
    8 2
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    January 23, 2025 9:37am
    - pdm
      
      G – Andy Ellis has a bit of personality and is a known `good bugger’!!!
      
      8 0
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      January 23, 2025 10:13am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Actually, I think Clarke Gayford did a pretty good job with the moving house show. I don’t bag him simply because he is Jacinda’s squeeze.
        
        7 3
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        January 23, 2025 10:45am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Don. Beckett, Gayford is a slimmy bugger, when he worked on that Dunedin channel years ago watching woman students coming home in the morning calling it the walk of shame, there is photos of that slime bag with the camera on the young woman, would you like that to happen to your daughter from a swine with his morals?
      
      6 2
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      January 23, 2025 11:10am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Can’t wait. I need to learn how to fish.//
    
    5 1
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    January 23, 2025 10:44am
- Jethrod
  
  Ya-hey, the return of ” Turn Ardern “, do your bit people!
  
  32 0
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  January 23, 2025 8:30am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    #helpturnardern
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:38am
- burt
  
  I wonder if there will be a chapter in the book dedicated to lawnmowers and DJ’s ?
  
  35 2
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  January 23, 2025 8:31am
  - Souvlaki
    
    And on that subject…can Goldsmith please tell us …openly…whether Karel Sroubek is still in NZ….and if so why?
    We know Dotcom has been ordered out…and of course appealing…but WHY the obfuscation about the convicted drug dealer Sroubek……????
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:09am
    - kevn
      
      Souv… If he was to buy the entire print run, that might help.
      
      10 0
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      January 23, 2025 9:12am
    - Keith White
      
      Souvlaki – Perhaps the Sroubek Connection will be covered in the forthcoming Ardern autobiography?
      
      9 1
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      January 23, 2025 9:23am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Shoebrick appealed also, has he been before the courts again or not, of course they can’t say anything
      
      6 1
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      January 23, 2025 9:39am
    - pdm
      
      Souv – would it be Goldsmith or Immigration Minister Erica Stanford?
      
      6 0
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      January 23, 2025 10:15am
    - Jake Dee
      
      Karel Sroubek is slated to be deported in March. The judge gave him 3 months to get his affairs in order.
      As for why he got into the country, what he did in Czechia and what he has been up to in NZ for 20+ years, I think it is highly likely that he has been a confidential informer, for the police or intelligence services and he finally burned through all their goodwill because of his continued criminal offending
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:17pm
- Pavel
  
  Yes it will sell above $5, it comes with a $10 box of crayons.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:41am
- Scooter
  
  I don’t know why she keeps up this narrative of kindness, it must be a lefty thing and extremely boring and trite. She certainly wasn’t being kind when she locked out people during COVID from seeing their dying relatives and agreed that there were 2 classes of citizens. It’s a shame Trump doesn’t sign an order to kick ex PM’s out of the US. Maybe if she was made to return here she might get a taste of what people really think of her.
  
  “I’d seen kindness do extraordinary things – I’d seen it give people hope, I’d seen it change minds, and transform lives.”
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:44am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I don’t know why she keeps up this narrative of kindness
    
    There is NOTHING else.
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:27am
    - Swifty
      
      Well she could hardly write a book on effective leadership could she?
      
      You know like child poverty solved, economy booming, unemployment at historic lows, medical system humming and at reduced cost, all kids flying out of schools as world beaters, crime almost unheard of etc etc.
      
      Apparently now, empathetic leadership is more important, effective leadership doesn’t even get a mention.
      
      A blatant attempt to take our eyes off the ball and enhance her failed legacy.
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:41am
  - Keith White
    
    I think she’s just too gutless to front up and get feedback from the millions of New Zealanders whose lives and careers she trashed and the tens of thousands whose health her mandate damaged, often permanently. I hope I will be in-country when her book is launched and she comes to sign copies for the jabworshippers. I have plans to protest; peacefully but pointedly.
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:29am
    - wsk12345
      
      Keep us posted – I’ll join!
      
      10 0
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      January 23, 2025 10:56am
  - Ghost
    
    Because she has a lot of international followers who believe she saved New Zealand. I expect her book will do well overseas
    
    14 2
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    January 23, 2025 9:32am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The last one was a total flop
      
      10 0
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      January 23, 2025 9:40am
      - Ghost
        
        What was her last book?
        
        1 4
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        January 23, 2025 9:51am
      - wsk12345
        
        It is challenging for her as most of her voters are illiterate.
        
        5 1
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        January 23, 2025 10:56am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Exactly
        
        5 0
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        January 23, 2025 11:30am
      - Jethrod
        
        You know, the one with colored pictures.
        
        5 0
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        January 23, 2025 12:51pm
  - Keith White
    
    “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
    Police cars on fire on the shoulder of State Highway Ardern.
    I’ve watched raised meres glitter in the dark near the Remuera offramp.
    All those moments will be lost in time, like the years spent working to enrichen Maori elites.
    Time to emigrate.
    ‘Bye.”
    
    17 1
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    January 23, 2025 9:34am
  - artemisia
    
    Meanwhile #47 in the US is not empathetic nor kind nor youth adjacent. Just getting the job done.
    
    13 1
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    January 23, 2025 10:42am
  - NothingLeft
    
    The cloak of performative empathy covering a heart of vindictive malevolence towards the people not of her ideological tribe.
    
    4 1
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    January 23, 2025 5:54pm
- peterwn
  
  The larger libraries have a policy to purchase a copy of each published NZ book for reference purposes and may purchase additional copies for general issue. Years ago a book aimed at young people called ‘The Little Red School Book’ was published by Alistair Taylor and was rather ‘avant garde’ at the time. Auckland Mayor Robbie’s criticism of it could be taken as a glowing endorsement. The Auckland Public Library purchased a copy for reference purposes and kept it in a locked book case. A Herald cartoon showed a customer requesting a librarian for it. In the background a large portrait of Mayor Robbie had come off the hook and was falling to the ground.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:48am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Can’t this publicity junkie just go away and STFU?
  We don’t need to know how you fucked New Zealand – we saw it happen!!
  
  19 1
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  January 23, 2025 10:49am
- Bloody Dago
  
  “On May 10, 1933, university students burn upwards of 25,000 “un-German” books in Berlin’s Opera Square. Some 40,000 people gathered to hear Joseph Goebbels deliver a fiery address: “No to decadence and moral corruption!”
  Just a hint if you feel that this publication is “un-New Zealand “
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:17am
  - sirknz
    
    What was in those books?
    
    3 0
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    January 23, 2025 1:54pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      They burned and banned all sorts of stuff, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud obviously but also works by Jack London, H.G. Wells, Thomas Mann Ernest Hemmingway even Helen Keller.
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:25pm
Anthony Melchett

“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,”

Imagine a world so fucked up that this needs to be said. At least trump wants normality back.
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January 23, 2025 8:13am
- Notsofast
  
  Posie Parker tried to explain this 2 years back but was effectively closed out by labour and the Greens fomenting a riot.
  Her manifesto has been adopted by Trump to the letter.
  This is also the manifesto of the Women’s Rights Party here, created by the remarkable Jill Ovens.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:07am
Scott

On 3 News last night there was an item where National was criticised vigorously about changes to the abortion laws now that pro life Simeon Brown has become health minister. The article in stuff gives a totally one sided, pro abortion view of the issue –

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360555874/provocation-abortion-law-reform-association-raises-concerns-over-pro-life-health-minister-simeon

The media in NZ still act like an imperial guard, protecting the legacy of the previous Jacinda led Labour govt.

These are the headwinds that National faces. Even the smallest hint that abortion laws might possibly be amended is met with vigorous resistance before anyone on the Pro-Life side has even uttered so much as a peep on the matter.

We were credibly accused by Spiked magazine in 2022 of being the wokest country in the world –

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.spiked-online.com/2022/03/07/new-zealand-the-wokest-country-in-the-world/amp/

I believe we have to allow time to change the culture. Our abortion laws, the most liberal in the world, are a marker of where we are on a whole range of issues; race, sexuality and DEI, to name just a few.

I believe it’s unrealistic to expect National to be able to change everything overnight, as much as we would wish them to.

However I do hope and urge them to carry on making changes like they did in their first 100 days. America is an example of a country that is changing rapidly for the better. I hope and pray that at least some of those changes can find their way to the South Pacific. 😊
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January 23, 2025 8:13am
- rouppe
  
  There are no changes to abortion laws being proposed.
  
  Both Chris Luxon and Simeon Brown have been quite clear on that.
  
  The whole story is a beat up over nothing
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:37am
  - Jules99
    
    Yeah, made me wonder if it’s a distraction. They accuse Trump of doing the same and he has said he won’t. He wanted the decision returned to the States as it always had been before Roe v Wade. That was up to the Supreme Court, not him.
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:47am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It’s just more harping from the Harper, Luxon said they will not change abortion law end of story. Yes Brown in the passed has said he believes in life, but reiterated he would not change that law just because he is health minister and he probably would have no say about laws.
    
    Luxon was asked if Brown tried that he said he would rep in to say no, can’t be more equivocal than that
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:14am
  - kiwimike
    
    But they can get rid of race based Laws, By-Laws, rules and quotas incl all co-governance…..
    
    then all NZ citizens can be treated equally under NZ Law and Govt policies…
    
    Will they ?
    
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    January 24, 2025 12:13am
- Morgan H
  
  This helps solidify Luxon put Brown in this situation to sabotage him. Brown has been placed in a position where his conservative views are attacked. And he if he wants to “win the centre” in the future he has to soften his views.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:56am
  - Ghost
    
    Actually it doesn’t. It does however show you have no faith that he can do the work necessary to fix health. Not even in the position a week and you’ve written him off and created a conspiracy on his placement.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:03am
    - Morgan H
      
      The problems with Health cannot be solved overnight. There are plenty of issues that have not been addressed by the last few governments. Shane Reti could’ve solved a fraction of the problems in a decade. But poor election promises ruined the public’s perception of him. Brown doesn’t have the time to fix the issues because this government will either be a one term government or one supported by the Maori party. If it’s the latter, then expect all the changes Reti made to be reversed.
      
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      January 23, 2025 11:17am
    - Ian Boag
      
      you have no faith that he can do the work necessary to fix health
      
      Those bolshie junior doctors and radiographers and stroppy overloaded nurses will be told where to get off. He will sort Deborah Powell …
      
      Bed throughput will increase to make room for people backed up in ED. Patients in hospital for whatever reason will be turfed out quicker.
      
      And he’s going to do it while spending less money! I have total faith that he will be a true descendant of St Tony Ryall 🙂
      
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      January 23, 2025 11:21am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      As I have stated, there has been a marked improvement in health over the three times I have been in hospital over 3 years, it appears better every time I have been in, I was surprised last week how much it had improved since June, wait times for elective have definitely moved, and in December they states the numbers had dropped 3% on the wait list.
      
      Seen a Marxist unionist nurse trying to tell us only 68 nurses have been hired over the last year, I call utter bullshit, there was 5 newly trained nurses going through orientation the day I was released, and there was 5 doctors, and I was delayed for release because those nurses and doctors worked in the releases, do 68 in a year. , but 6 in one day in Dunedin, they are lying.
      
      For the record3300 nurses hired last year with a net 3000 extra by December
      
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      January 23, 2025 11:24am
      - Morgan H
        
        There was always going to be an improvement in health in regard to wait times. The Lockdowns caused massive increases to wait times. Over time they would decrease because of a lack of anymore lockdowns. National is getting credit for just coming into power at the right time. National has not made massive changes needed to solve the long-term issues.
        
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        January 23, 2025 12:39pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Don’t talk utter bullshit, Brown is an asset to Luxon, why would he try and shaft him ffs?
    
    Luxon gives me the impression if he knows times up he will sort that out, I think he will go to the next election, but definitely not 29, it is quite possible he chucks it to someone else end of this year and stand down at the election
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:17am
    - Morgan H
      
      Based on the current polls National is looking at losing 10 seats. Those potential losers are looking at how to save their asses. Factions in the National party are already back leaking to the media. Brown is seen as one of the potential leaders if Luxon is pushed.
      
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      January 23, 2025 12:45pm
- RoboRob
  
  Tv3 news and Stuff are one and the same.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:07am
  - Ghost
    
    Question is will they survive. I think by the end of the year the print and TV media landscape will be very different
    
    https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/13-11-2024/we-have-the-ratings-for-stuffs-threenews-what-story-do-they-tell
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:16am
    - RoboRob
      
      I have been expecting Stuffs demise for quite some time. I think the TV3 deal has probably offered them a life line for the mean time. Depends how long Discovery want to fund it.
      
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      January 23, 2025 4:01pm
- Philview
  
  Simeon Brown’s pro life views have been attacked by all media in the last 24 hours so it appears very coordinated.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:16am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Total beat-up. Any honest journalist who did their homework would know most of the Nats are social liberals (look at their voting records), and any leader (or minister) who made noises about changing the abortion laws would be gone by lunchtime.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:46pm
Cassandra

Ex Nat MP Simon O’Connor: “While congratulations are due to James Meager for entering the Executive, the role of ‘Minister of the South Island’ is again just marketing and branding (in the same way the ‘Minister for Auckland’ is). Ministers without an actual ministry and budget are effectively powerless and no more effective advocates than the MPs in the area. Put bluntly, if you need a Minister then what are the MPs doing – and why not have a Minister for Hamilton, Kerikeri, or the Chatham Islands for that matter?”. O’Connor also criticises the Government ie the National Party, for 1. Spending more than the previous Labour government and 2. Prevaricating on Treaty issues and a number of other matters. He (and I) hope that National will get a grip. Waffle was the Ardern specialty, we expect a lot more from Luxon and Willis. O’Connor concludes: “That Labour is lost and listless, the Maori Party being Marxist revolutionaries and out-radicalising the Greens, is also helping the current government. Their vote may have grown in the recent polls, but voters overall are not seeing them as the alternative and for now, this a good thing. If this changes – particularly if Labour finds its stride earlier than anticipated – then there is trouble ahead for National.” I hope Luxon and his colleagues are listening.
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January 23, 2025 8:15am
- Matt Long
  
  O’Connor, like Alfred Ngaro, was the wrong kind of Christian for the National Party.
  Luxon and this lady are a better fit.
  https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1881761350202110025
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:24am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yet another reminder that the Nats are not a conservative party.
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:57am
    - MCōs
      
      Unlike America Kiwis no longer care much for bringing the church into politics.
      
      5 7
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      January 23, 2025 10:32am
      - Matt Long
        
        Maybe that’s why New Zealand is currently doing so well worshipping matauranga Maori and Gaia.
        
        8 2
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        January 23, 2025 11:32am
  - lifesgood
    
    O’Connor is a thoroughly good man. He did a lot for his electorate and he and his wife work tirelessly in the community fostering kids etc. It is a shame that the ladies who lunch, and are way too old to have kids anyway, voted againt him because he was opposed to killing babies. I thought it was particularly nasty of ACT to put up young, photogenic and in your face van Velden in O’Connor’s electorate. A real act of sabotage.
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:16am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Luxon has not shown any religious bullshittery since being leader of the party
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:43am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Even though I dislike him, I will give him that.
      Nothing worst than a pushy religious nutter.
      
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      January 23, 2025 10:52am
      - Keith White
        
        There are much worse somethings than a pushy religious nutter – such as a pushy religious nutter who issues deadly fatwas, a pushy religious nutter who sets bombs, a pushy religious nutter who stabs children, and so on.
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:13am
      - Conservatarian
        
        Is it “religious” to oppose the killing of a baby? The actual and sole reason for almost all abortions is that it is convenient for the woman carrying her baby. This means c. 10,000 babies killed per annum in NZ. I can't imagine why people want to "own the Christians" by being pro-abortion or think that hating or being indifferent to religion gives them cover to simply accept that abortion should be.
        
        Almost all of us here, religious or otherwise, rightfully oppose the drugging and mutilation of a tiny number of NZers (especially children) under the guise of quote-unquote gender affirming healthcare. The numbers of those affected in that instance are peanuts compared to the deaths that pile up under abortion.
        
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        January 23, 2025 12:54pm
  - kowtow
    
    Remember how Bill the Papish Plotter had to publically abase himself in order to be given the untarnished by Poppery leadership role .
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:47am
  - kiwimike
    
    Is Luxon a Christian ??
    Having your photo taken at church isn’t necessarily being one.
    
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    January 24, 2025 12:18am
- pdm
  
  Cass – there used to be a Minister for Pahiatua back in the late 50’s early 60’s..
  
  Well maybe not the town but there was an Eectorate named Pahiatua and Sir Keith Holyoake, the Prime Minister, was the local MP.
  
  He of course did live a few (less than 5) miles out of town.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:27am
- cmm
  
  The place where the ball is being dropped is that the parties, of all stripes, consider electorate MPs their assets.
  For example, electorate MPs are expected to vote on party lines.
  
  This is broken. Electorate MPs should primarily be operating in the interests of the electorate. Those interests might be in opposition of the interests of other electorates and the general interests of the party.
  
  This is one of the broken bits in MMP.
  
  It would have been far better if MMP had been structured so that the proportional element only elected list seats and left electorate seats as they were in FPP.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:36am
  - Dougal10
    
    And run them as 2 houses , electorate MPs proposing legislation and list ones ironing out the details .
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:52am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Noooooooo
      No more Houses. Look at the mess Oz has.
      And just look at the standard of some of our List MPs. Bunch of morons and you want them ‘ironing out details’?
      We possibly have too many MPs.
      1 for every 40-45,000 or so (less in Maori seats?)
      The US has 1 Congressman for every 700,000
      
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      January 23, 2025 10:15am
      - Flossie
        
        I agree we do have way too many MPs, but in USA there are many layers beneath the Federal Government. State Governments just for instance.
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:35am
  - MCōs
    
    All MPs are expected to vote along party lines on confidence and supply issues in NZ. MMP and previously FPP.
    Furthermore
    Voters know that and vote accordingly for their electorate seats.
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:37am
Matt Long

Reason number 2 Billion and five why it’s simply impossible for this government not to increase spending and borrowing.
4 million to play recordings of whale sounds to kauri tree because Maori science is essential spending.
https://x.com/TaxpayersUnion/status/1881882926394331211
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January 23, 2025 8:15am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Goodness…
  
  This has really been taking place:
  
  https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/09/professor-jerry-coyne-maori-defends.html
  
  https://www.kauriprotection.co.nz/assets/Research-reports/Matauranga-Maori/T.-Shortland-Rongoa-Improving-the-Health-of-Kauri-Forests.pdf
  
  https://a-living-giant.earth/Kauri-Dieback-Disease-part-2-1
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:34am
  - Souvlaki
    
    This rort needs to be addressed in a reltively urgent manner by Luxon & Willis….but I’d put money on it that they will stay schtum 🙁
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:42am
    - Dougal10
      
      This is certainly fraud of taxpayers social dollars.
      
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      January 23, 2025 8:53am
    - Observer of Life
      
      I emailed Luxon, Seymour and Peter’s about this yesterday. Nothing so far from the first two, from Peter’s an auto reply.
      
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      January 23, 2025 8:54am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Auto replies are bullshit, it’s worse than not replying
        
        8 2
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        January 23, 2025 9:45am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Auto replies show the ignorance.
        
        4 0
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        January 23, 2025 10:57am
      - Keith White
        
        I called the office of my local waste of the communal O2 MP to politely ask for an appointment to discuss this when I am next home. Answer in its breathless entirety “he does not have time to meet please send an email have a good day.”
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:16am
  - pdm
    
    Did everybody get the Taxpayers Union Email re this yesterday.
    
    For those that didn’t here it is with some add ons by me.
    
    https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/te-tira-whakamataki-limited-how-did-these-nutcases-get-access-to-government-money/
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:04am
    - kevn
      
      pdm… Some Kauri thoughts.
      https://x.com/mcreefa/status/1882003949810766220
      
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      January 23, 2025 12:44pm
- Simon
  
  That $4 million spend forms part of annual GDP.
  
  Govt spending is 42% of GDP thats why taxes are going up. Unless govt pisses money away NZ is in a recession. The govt shit spending, massive borrowing and over taxation will not stop.
  
  Thats 20 yrs of garbage govt, the govt is now an important part of GDP. Luxon aint gonna turn that around. Its catch 22.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:41am
- cmm
  
  If a few whacked out greenies and grass roots Maori groups want to do this with their own resources they could have done this for maybe $20k (a few sausage sizzles) and a few working bees (remember them?).
  
  But no, once the taxpayer’s pocket gets involved it becomes a $4M exercise – no doubt to be topped up a few times too.
  
  One wonders how you can possibly spend $4M on a few solar panels, batteries, speakers, amplifiers and an ipod.
  
  Even throwing in a new Ford Ranger or two with custom wraps shouldn’t get you much past $400k. Still an order of magnitude off.
  
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  January 23, 2025 8:44am
  - Matt Long
    
    The people authorizing the funding coincidentally bear a strong resemblance to those being funded according to the TPU email.
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:51am
    - cmm
      
      Well of course.
      That is how you had out a $20k exercise into a $4M exercise.
      
      No doubt lots of “consultants” “earning” $250 an hour to advise on the correct placement, correct time to play the songs etc etc.
      
      At the end of the exercise there will probably be a Ford Ranger with 5000km on the clock up for sale for $200 too (if you know who to talk to).
      
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      January 23, 2025 8:58am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: Would you mind explaining the Ford Ranger bit? In what way would selling a vehicle for way less than its value be connected to this utter nonsense?
        
        6 2
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        January 23, 2025 10:51am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Were those involved part of the Dunedin Council?
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:06am
      - RoboRob
        
        @DG
        
        My reading of the comment is that at the end of this the only thing created / the only asset, will be a vehicle.
        
        Implication 1, its a total waste of money and wont generate anything
        
        The comment on selling the vehicle for $200 relates to the ‘back room dealings’ of some of these NGOs.
        
        Implication 2, the vehicle will be funnelled to a mate or swapped for some other favour.
        
        Really a very clever comment and likely true in many cases.
        
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        January 23, 2025 11:56am
      - cmm
        
        DG: I am just suggesting that to make this thing cost $4M they likely purchased a bunch of new vehicles and other assets which will likely be sold off (preferentially to cuzzies and mates for a token koha) when the job is complete.
        
        I would expect that the troughing doesn’t just stop at paying consultants.
        
        I have no more knowledge of this than you do – hence “probably”.
        
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        January 23, 2025 12:14pm
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        for David
        
        It used to be pretty common to max out depreciation and then sell assets at “book value” that is why IRD has depreciation schedules now.
        
        Employers and business owners still buy assets and vehicles once depreciated at pretty advantageous rates.
        
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        January 23, 2025 12:23pm
      - Paulus
        
        Blimey only $250 an hour – get real my Solicitor charges out at $450 an hour.
        
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        January 23, 2025 2:43pm
      - kevn
        
        cmm… I once met a proxy for a famous in NZ musician who had setup with govt as$istance, a music training course with all the new instruments one could wish for.
        It quickly flopped and everything was sold for low ca$h prices.
        The whole selling caper was as opaque as you could imagine. I declined to buy anything, but the whole stock had been well picked over by the time I turned up anyway.
        
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        January 23, 2025 2:46pm
  - Colville
    
    Is this funding for the weird shoe washer stations now found on some track entrances?
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:57am
  - sirknz
    
    Majority of the not for profit’s money is spent on salaries according to the taxpayer’s union research team.
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:21am
- imalwaysright
  
  “Landcare Research gave $4,027,020 on the Oranga (Wellbeing) Project ”
  
  $20.00 to cover costs.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:05am
- Ghost
  
  Most of this is under labour. As it ended in early 2024, it would be interesting to see if that funding came from labours last budget or not
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:21am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Of course it came from Labours last budget, this government had to suck up Labours last budget until June 30 last year. Then the government had to restock parts of the government funding because the dirty passed government gutted on going funding, for example, from July one Pharmac had no funding, look at Labours manifesto, not a mention, this happened in several areas, and that is why this government had to borrow so much, this will be far less next budget because they will not have to restock pillage by Labour
    
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    January 23, 2025 9:51am
  - Matt Long
    
    It may be from Labour, but the fact that it took the TPU to bring it to public notice rather than the government is like Holmes’ dog that didn’t bark.
    A reforming government would be trumpeting this kind of thing from the rooftops, “this is the kind of unbelievable waste under Labour we’re going to root out and get rid of in the public sector, taxpayers’ precious dollars rorted by unscrupulous public troughers.”
    Properly handled this issue is probably worth an extra 3-5% points in the polls.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:43am
- John Loveridge
  
  The rot goes all the way down through local government. I learned today that Wellington City Council spent $68,000 on a bunch of planter boxes to line a 25m section of a cycle way. My offsider was reading Stuff a short time ago while he drank his morning coffee. He was having a right spew about it (the WCC, not his coffee).
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:48am
cas

There are a couple of interesting things in this week’s Listener.

First a letter, which is awarded Letter of the week, talks about the changes to the Marsden Fund. Talking about the lack of critical thinking in universities, the writer says ‘examples abound of students being told essays that take a particular position on a contentious matter will not be accepted’. And further ‘the past 10 years has seen an exponential growth in graduates coming into workplaces with words like “unsafe”, “harmful”and “triggered”. The writer goes on to cite an example of a graduate in one interview telling the writer she (the graduate) expected to be pre-briefed on meetings so she could determine if the content was acceptable to her. What on earth are we churning out of our universities.

On the same topic of higher education, David Harvey has written a piece in the same Listener about Auckland’s Law Faculty being subsumed under the Faculty of Business and Economics. Apart from the tight timeframe for feedback which was shortened due to the ‘coincidental’ holiday break, the proposal also wants to split law teaching into two stream – a public law stream and a private law stream, the latter weighted towards commercial and corporate law.Apparently something similar was put in place in Canterbury and was such a disaster it was unwound a couple of years later.

Interesting reading.
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January 23, 2025 8:18am
- David Garrett
  
  The writer goes on to cite an example of a graduate in one interview telling the writer she (the graduate) expected to be pre-briefed on meetings so she could determine if the content was acceptable to her. What on earth are we churning out of our universities
  
  Yes, I read the above nonsense with some incredulity. The writer of the letter doesn’t say, but one hopes the snowflake graduate was then shown the door quick smart.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:54am
  - lifesgood
    
    She needed to be told “Now listen here missy. We are the bosses, you are an employee. If you don’t abide by our rules resign before we push you. Who on earth do you think you are?”
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:09am
  - cmm
    
    DG: “but one hopes the snowflake graduate was then shown the door quick smart.”
    
    Dreams are free mate, but here’s a far more likely scenario:
    
    The snowflake graduate was invited to join, and maybe lead, a panel that would develop policies and would vet these meetings to make sure they were not offensive.
    
    If she did encounter any triggering material, she would be offered counseling and get the rest of the week off to deal with her PTSD.
    
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    January 23, 2025 12:21pm
Yabster

no corruption in NZ? Yeah right- we have spent $4m on playing whale noises to trees because it may calm them, and they are brothers- it is sickening. That would pay for a lot of nurses wouldn’t it!

I will be emailing Judith Collins and Nicola Willis- (current and soon to be the Minister of Public services- as it’s driven by MBIE)- as the media won’t report this b/s waste and corruption (the Charity taking the money and the Govt initiative are headed up by the same woman!!) I suggest all spread the link far and wide!

https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/2025_kauri_trees

I have also donated to the Taxpayers Union.
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January 23, 2025 8:22am
- sirknz
  
  Why does everyone forgot about the word ‘perceptions’ when referencing the ‘Corruption Perceptions Index’?
  
  I don’t think that ranking lowly in this reflects well on the general population personally.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:25am
Dr John

Wow!
At last President Biden got something right.
He [sort of] pardoned Leonard Peltier.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biden-commutes-sentence-leonard-peltier-native-american-activist-impri-rcna188331?os=ios%2F%3Fno_journeystruekokdJXXV&ref=app
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January 23, 2025 8:26am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.35m, three bikes. Ladies & gentlemen, a new record!

A calm, warm morning in the Capital, ideal for cycling.
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January 23, 2025 8:39am
- Swifty
  
  Ring the bells!
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:47am
- alex Masterley
  
  Hurrah!
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:17am
- AitchW
  
  Now the council can announce with the appropriate fanfare a 300% increase in bike rack useage, thereby granting itself permission to build even more racks.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:14am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I can see the Greenies headlines now……”50% increase in cycling since installing bike rack …….a huge success”. //
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:43am
sungsamning

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/21/report-india-to-take-back-18000-indian-migrants-living-in-u-s-illegally/
Report: India to Take Back 18,000 Indian Migrants Living in U.S. Illegally.
“People familiar with the matter” informed Bloomberg that the Indian government is prepared to work with President Donald Trump and his administration to “identify and take back all its citizens” who have been in the U.S. illegally.

“As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, told Bloomberg. “This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.”
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January 23, 2025 8:40am
sungsamning

https://www.lucianne.com/2025/01/21/trump_announces_purge_of_over_1000_biden_appointees_youre_fired_143846.html
Trump announces purge of over 1,000 Biden
appointees: ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’
President Donald Trump started purging more than 1,000 appointees from former President Joe Biden’s administration overnight – starting with celebrity chef Jose Andres and embattled retired General Mark Milley. The new commander-in-chief fired off the “official notice of dismissal” to four Biden appointees in a midnight social media post, bluntly warning that his team were hunting down even more to throw out of office.
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January 23, 2025 8:40am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  That’s why Jack Smith headed for the hills.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:10am
Yabster

My email To Nicola Willis and Judith Collins -(current and soon to be Ministers for the Public service)- I encourage you to do the same.

Hi Nicola and Judith,

As a National party supporter I am very concerned that the type of waste is still happening under your watch (as the current Minister for Public Services and the soon to be Minister)- see link below.

The Taxpayer Union is investigating this and it will get into the public domain – most will be amazed this waste is happening particularly with the state of the economy and the huge debt we have accumulated- and are continuing to do so. Not to mention the conflict of interest/corrupt practice in awarding the charity the funds.

The CEO of MBIE has some explaining to do as does the founder of the Charity (who is the same person running the Government initiative).

I hope you will take this issue seriously

Link:

https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/2025_kauri_trees
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January 23, 2025 8:44am
- Jethrod
  
  The co-founder of the said charity, Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, is the daughter of Ron Mark, he of NZ First fame. Obviously went off the tracks a bit.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:50am
  - Matt Long
    
    My first thought was; Ron Mark’s daughter, that would explain it. Rather than someone went off the tracks.
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:25am
    - Keith White
      
      Matt: I’d recommend the value of “and.”
      
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      January 23, 2025 11:18am
Yvette

In a comment above I wondered –
“In fact, are NZF’s 24 [28 actually] deletions of Treaty references justified because the Treaty itself is not actually written into legislation, in any of its many versions?”

And as a corollary : How much is ACT’s Principles of the Treaty Bill effected by Winston’s current Coalition Agreement commitment –

Govt to change or remove Treaty of Waitangi provisions in 28 laws
The Government has identified 28 pieces of legislation, dating back to 1986, that will have their Treaty of Waitangi provisions scrutinised with a view to change or repeal the clauses.

The NZ First-National coalition agreement commits the Government to conducting a comprehensive review of all legislation (except when it is related to, or substantive to, existing full and final Treaty settlements) that includes ‘The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi’.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/10/14/govt-to-change-or-remove-treaty-of-waitangi-provisions-in-28-laws/

Won’t Winston’s agreed position largely cancel out the need for ACT’s bill – except when it is related to, or substantive to, existing full and final Treaty settlements, which one assumes are detailed to some degree – or will be after this.

There are more ways of killing a felis catus than by choking it with cream
my moggie is a little sensitive about that saying
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January 23, 2025 8:53am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  When you listen to Seymour he says every time that his bill is about the treaty in law. He wants law to not have a differing view of what the treaty means. Taking the mention of the treaty out of law altogether gets rid of it, judges will not be able to take the treaty into account, the TPB I would suggest the bill leaves the treaty in Law
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:58am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agreed
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:48am
Chuck Bird

Looking forward to Act’s State of the Nation event tomorrow.
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January 23, 2025 9:02am
TripeWryter

I see that Lieutenant-General Halevi, the Israel Chief of Staff, has resigned ostensibly to take responsibility for the intelligence and other failures on October 7. 2023.
In other words the man quit because he had failed to achieve what his prime minister wanted – the eradication of Hamas.
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January 23, 2025 9:03am
- Matt Long
  
  Well, it could be the failure to eradicate Hamas, but I think that’s a political failure or it could be the failings in this article.
  https://www.jns.org/a-coup-attempt-in-the-shadow-of-oct-7/
  Other things I’ve heard include that the commander of defenses where the incursion occurred was fresh off a DEI course, left UNARMED female soldiers in charge IDF observation posts and ignored their reports.
  There are IDF personnel that deserve the death penalty if true.
  
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  January 23, 2025 9:42am
  - kowtow
    
    The female “observers ‘ are I think normally left unarmed cos their role was never seen as combat and was thought to have been always behind well defended lines .
    
    This might help.
    
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-surveillance-troops-testify-to-glitches-neglect-no-warfare-training-before-oct-7/
    
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    January 23, 2025 12:00pm
- cmm
  
  I doubt anyone thinks you could really eradicate Hamas any more than you could eliminate cockroaches.
  
  Someone from the military had to go under the bus (whether it was the military’s fault or not). Such is politics.
  
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  January 23, 2025 12:26pm
Keith White

Ex-Parliamentary lying tyrants should not get royalties for writing self-justifying screeds approving their own tyranny.
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January 23, 2025 9:09am
- Ghost
  
  Isn’t that a large portion of political fantasy novels?
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:04am
- MCōs
  
  I’ve read a few political autobiographies and I have a few on the shelf I haven’t got round to yet.
  They rarely admit mistakes beyond backing the wrong horse at Trentham
  Never mind!
  When Jacinda Ardern’s book comes out there will be someone who’ll claim their health has been ruined because she put too much salt on their fish n chips and it reacted with the vaccine
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:49am
  - Keith White
    
    That’s a strong projector ya got there MC, is it in the room with you right now? 🙂
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:19am
- kevn
  
  Keith… Ghost written to be sure. Not KB Ghost though.
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:40pm
Yvette

They are U.S?
• White House press secretary confirmed US federal employees in diversity offices must be placed on paid leave by Wednesday.
• Donald Trump ordered the shutdown of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) programmes, claiming they discriminated against white people.
• The Office of Personnel Management memo instructed agency heads to cancel DEI trainings and terminate related contracts by Wednesday evening.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/us-govt-workers-in-diversity-jobs-to-be-put-on-leave-as-programmes-ordered-shut-by-donald-trump/FCKDTS4CVNGJDC2MF34NTKWKJ4/

Government Executive regulates that all references to te Ao o Maori, where the reference is to the religious world view, cease forthwith, as such references discriminate against other individual or community held religious views.
Oh! … no?
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January 23, 2025 9:11am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Lucky to get paid leave
  
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  January 23, 2025 7:21pm
Matt Long

Great visionary leadership from Keir Starmer, all we need to do to end terrorism is place restrictions on the sale of knives. Progressivism at its best.
https://x.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1882033173694996520
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January 23, 2025 9:32am
- kowtow
  
  They seem to be keen on expanding the defintion and use of said legislation.
  
  Which means even more cases, given who are the intended targets …….if you get my drift.
  
  Truly Orwellian this mob and incredibly out of touch with their alleged and in Starmer’s particular case his much heralded by te media Keir Hardie , cloth cap ,working class roots.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:44am
hookerphil

That would mean leaving the Los Angeles Fire Department as is and the New Zealand Navy ……….
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January 23, 2025 9:49am
Steve Otto N Shore

‘Scram, Ya Dirty Rats!’ Shouts Tommy Gun-Wielding Melania.
“Youse all got til midnight tonight to pack up and go on the lam, or you’ll be wakin’ up to a lead breakfast, ya got it?”

https://babylonbee.com/news/tommy-gun-wielding-melania-trump-patrols-streets-of-dc-running-democrats-out-of-town?
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January 23, 2025 10:13am
sirknz

Seriously. this piece of filth gets a 40% discount for the systematic predation on his stepdaughter?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bay-of-plenty-man-imprisoned-for-nine-year-sexual-abuse-of-young-stepdaughter/4T3MLZQQIBFBZLH2OY2RFQ7YFI/

He gets less time in prison than the time frame of the actual offending. This sort of offending needs to be punished, severely, so that these sick freaks will think twice about acting out on their impulses. His ‘remorse’ is more likely that he got caught, not that he did it.

A woodchipper is too quick for them.
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January 23, 2025 10:19am
- Ghost
  
  Well. At least he didn’t get home detention
  
  Here’s a starting point of 14 years reduced to 3 1/2 years
  
  https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360553485/man-jailed-sex-crimes-committed-teens
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:30am
- imalwaysright
  
  How did someone not notice?
  Friends, family, teachers?
  
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  January 23, 2025 2:00pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Peter William’s views a dying industry:

I don’t need the traditional New Zealand news media. I doubt I’ll ever have much consumer involvement with it again unless there’s some significant change in their editorial balance to offer what we used to call “both sides of the story.”

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/peter-williams-another-nail-in-the-coffin
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January 23, 2025 10:33am
- greybeard
  
  Great article: I hope Hosking sees it and comments on it.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:22am
  - kowtow
    
    Likewise Plunket , I like the Platform ,but he is arrogant and insulting as Williams says .
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:38am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Agree, I cancelled my membership, not because he disagreed with concerns about the jab, but because of his personal abuse of texters and especially callers who wanted to discuss it. If you agreed with him he was your best mate. If you wanted to argue the point he turned to hatred and abuse. If he tried that in person he might find himself in some trouble.
      
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      January 23, 2025 2:08pm
Allan

Not mentioned in the Trump orders was this wee gem;

No US company to pay taxes to any other nation governement.

Does that mean the attempt to tax Google etc will fall flat?
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January 23, 2025 10:35am
- kowtow
  
  WSJ cover this .
  
  It’s about the OECD global tax bollocks that Bidenn signed the US up to.
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:29am
- Matt Long
  
  Does it mean the Irish tax shelters will fall?
  
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  January 23, 2025 12:07pm
  - cmm
    
    Nope. Google Ireland is not Google USA.
    
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    January 23, 2025 12:32pm
- cmm
  
  “Does that mean the attempt to tax Google etc will fall flat?”
  
  Not really.
  
  The Google that pays taxes in NZ would be a local company (eg. Google NZ Ltd).
  
  That is a NZ company, with an office in NZ, and is thus subject to NZ laws.
  
  It is common to firewall companies like that to limit liability and to be able to handle different HR and tax laws in different countries.
  
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  January 23, 2025 12:31pm
  - Bridgenag
    
    Don’t use Google use Duck Duck Go
    
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    January 23, 2025 1:05pm
    - sirknz
      
      Duck duck go also filter your search results to preferred, approved answers in much the same way as Google.
      
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      January 23, 2025 2:03pm
Mod88

4 more years of Trump Derangement Syndrome ahead if Stuff/Herald/RNZ (I don’t watch TVNZ but assume the same) over the last 2 days are an indicator assuming of course they are still with us in 4 years which is looking highly unlikely.
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January 23, 2025 10:42am
- MCōs
  
  Locally we’ve got several months of Ardern Derangement Syndrome ahead if this forum is anything to go by . . . . .
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:55am
  - lifesgood
    
    It’s not derangement if it’s true.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:13am
  - Keith White
    
    MC: Is that gonna be like commenters on the Thai King in what I believe I recall in your neck of the global woods?
    
    The link provides some background on the crop-topped monarch-of-the-common-man-in-Bangkok.
    
    https://sea.mashable.com/culture/13944/looks-like-the-thai-king-can-go-back-to-germany-without-a-visa-or-a-worry-in-the-world
    
    Not the same but similar – after all, in Thailand there is only one source of truth about the Glorious Leader and failure to adhere to that can get you 15 years in the Thai slammer. Ardern only locked me out for 9 months – and then only locked me up without charge, trial or hearing for 22 days. Thems was rookie numbers, JA.
    
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    January 23, 2025 11:24am
    - kevn
      
      Keith… Always good to read you on KB.
      
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      January 23, 2025 3:37pm
- graham
  
  We watch TV One News, but just skip over the bits that we know will be triggering, or hopelessly biased, or focusing on Maori ‘science’, and the like. Which these days is leaving not a lot of news to watch.
  
  Skipped over all the Trump stuff last two days, we just don’t want to watch TV One News get themselves in a lather about him. We’ll get our news about Trump from other outlets that are a bit more sane and reasonable.
  
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  January 23, 2025 10:59am
  - sirknz
    
    “but just skip over the bits that we know will be triggering, or hopelessly biased, or focusing on Maori ‘science’, and the like”
    
    So just watch the opening credits and the closing credits then…
    
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    January 23, 2025 2:05pm
  - mogg
    
    Quite amazingly Maiki Sherman was able to give a balanced report on Luxon’s return to work and the reshuffle on last night’s news. There were no random interviews of supposedly neutral opinions from people in the street who were keen to tell us the government is stupid, they are dangerous, forcing people to into poverty etc etc. We will have to see how long it lasts.
    
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    January 23, 2025 2:09pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  TDS will still be alive in 4 more Elections when Barron runs for POTUS!!
  
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  January 23, 2025 11:26am
  - Jules99
    
    I think Barron will be too young, but Vance could be good for two terms. Then Barron.
    
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    January 23, 2025 1:33pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Barron is over 18. In four Elections (16 years) he will be 34, which does not make the 35 minimum age requirement.
      I got that a bit wrong, I thought it was 34.
      In that equation there will be Donald Trump Junior. Notice that people do listen to him?
      Jules you are correct. 34 does not make it.
      
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      January 23, 2025 3:28pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Ever worked for the young son of a rich guy business founder?
        
        Usually #%^@wits.
        
        3 1
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        January 23, 2025 3:46pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360556913/when-trump-found-bidens-letter-oval-office-he-set-it-aside-its-contents-have-now-been-revealed

“The letter was left as part of a tradition of one US president leaving a welcome note to their successor.”

So why all the breathless media fuss about this particular letter ?
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January 23, 2025 11:12am
- zulumonster
  
  They were amazed he was actually able to write a letter?
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:57pm
  - Allan
    
    You presume he actually wrote it?
    
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    January 23, 2025 10:20pm
surfing

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=184&topicid=296359&page_no=76

I have to laugh at the geekzone crazy lefties and their rabid moderator all piling on Musk saying that he is a Nazi — all because of a single still photo frame.

These are people who already decided they hate Elon Musk, and manipulating any imagery that fits their bias.

Geekzone is a hive of commies, and their moderator selectively applies his rules against those on the right side of politics.
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January 23, 2025 11:31am
- Jules99
  
  I couldn’t bear it and left there a few years back. Not smart people at all.
  
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  January 23, 2025 1:32pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Quite amusing to watch those triggered!!!!!!!!!!
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:30pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Once the juvenile marxist/anarchist brigade take over a joint it becomes a pathetic mess.
    
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    January 23, 2025 3:48pm
Steve Otto N Shore

It snowing in Florida. Not even 48 hours into the job and Trump already stopping global warming!
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January 23, 2025 11:44am
G the giant from Dunedin

I see the Arrogant failure Hipkins telling us “ hey punk, are you better off” and then he is pointing at us like we are dead beats
10 1
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January 23, 2025 11:44am
Steve Otto N Shore

The hunter is now the hunted.
“Jim Jordan had one message for Jack Smith that sent shivers down Democrats’ spines.”
This will be fun. Resigning does not mean you can run away. Jordan does not give up easily.

https://deplorabledaily.com/jim-jordan-had-one-message-for-jack-smith-that-sent-shivers-down-democrats-spines/?
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January 23, 2025 11:51am
Ghost

Free Palestine banned as hate speech on TikTok….

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/tiktok-labels-free-palestine-as-hate-speech-and-hateful-behavior-users-claim/ar-AA1xG4Ug?ocid=BingNewsSerp
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January 23, 2025 12:23pm
Ghost

UAP recovery video shows ‘egg-shaped’ object: Exclusive

Reminds me of someone…..time for a reboot
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January 23, 2025 12:47pm
Matt Long

Here’s why it’s important only trained law enforcement should have access to firearms.
https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1882149590666997838
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January 23, 2025 12:49pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  It was just a scratch, honest.
  
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  January 23, 2025 1:22pm
- kevn
  
  Matt… Packing a pistol is certainly putting himself at risk.
  
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  January 23, 2025 2:58pm
OlderChas

When, oh when, is NZ MP going to gather the wherewithal to tell some uppity “journalist” – “If you interrupt or butt in on me once more while I am replying to one of your questions, you will never get the opportunity to ask me any more questions. Do I make myself clear?” Then cancel that “journalist” who starts spluttering and berating him right away.
It is ridiculous that some jumped up straight out of journo school has the temerity to interrupt a person who is in the process of answering the preceding (usually idiotic) question. I see it time and time again, and it’s usually because the “journalist” is frightened that the answer is turning into something he/she does not want to hear.
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January 23, 2025 1:07pm
- mogg
  
  Don’t worry they are only making fools of themselves, they are just too stupid to see it.
  
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  January 23, 2025 2:39pm
Jack5

What’s going on with our nurses?

About two-thirds of recently diploma-graduated nurses, presumably saddled with student debt, can’t get jobs, says a Radio NZ report.

Our seem to have plenty of nurses from overseas. Able, trained, and pleasant they are.

Are NZ graduates not up to standard?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/539699/they-are-all-petrified-recently-graduated-enrolled-nurses-unable-to-find-jobs

While we’re on the topic of international flow of workers …

Even Lapland is bringing Thais to pick berries (link below).

If Karl Marx was scribbling away in London’s British Library today, how would he classify fit the growing international flows of workers? Workers of the world ~~unite~~, get your air tickets?

https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/26001-thai-berry-pickers-claim-exploitation-in-finnish-human-trafficking-trial.html
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January 23, 2025 1:26pm
- Ghost
  
  Last November rnz reported 844 nurses were offered jobs
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/535049/half-of-nursing-graduates-miss-out-on-job-offer-from-te-whatu-ora
  
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  January 23, 2025 2:02pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    I say it is Admin sucking up all of the funds.
    
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    January 23, 2025 4:37pm
- MCōs
  
  Reading that article the type of nurses referred are enrolled nurses who have a diploma rather than a degree required to be a registered nurse
  18mths study as opposed to 3yrs
  I’m guessing that the immigrant nurses would have a degree.
  Previously I wasn’t aware of these different categories
  
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  January 23, 2025 2:19pm
- MCōs
  
  Here’s an interesting tweet.
  Some guy who is a huge Trump fan has had his life turned upside down as a consequence of his man becoming president
  https://x.com/johnbasham/status/1881832922346377320?s=61&t=yFkzCNMWRCaVt1p5eRxUog
  I also read about a farmer in a strongly pro Trump area whose workers didn’t turn up to work on Tuesday because they were all immigrants of some sort and were scared of being arrested.
  In some parts of rural America there is a labour shortage and undocumented migrants are all they can get.
  Soon sort of compromise is maybe going to have to be reached one would have thought
  
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  January 23, 2025 4:29pm
Ghost

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360555581/watch-live-christopher-luxon-speaks-national-party-caucus-retreat

Callaghan Innovation To be disestablished

Seven crown research institutes to be replaced with 3 public research orgs focusing on “ on bio-economy, earth sciences, and health and forensic sciences.”
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January 23, 2025 2:48pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Perhaps in another 25 years or so, some bright spark might decide we should establish ONE establishment to run & conduct public/national scientific & applied Research in NZ…..
  
  Gee, perhaps we could call it the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
  
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  January 23, 2025 2:55pm
- cmm
  
  Yes! Get rid of Callaghans!
  Although I am in a sector which often feeds from this trough I am extremely opposed to them.
  
  Why should a government department be taxing, say, bakers more to pay some highly risky start up company seed funding?
  
  The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers and certainly should not be using the taxpayer’s pocket to do so!
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:09pm
  - kevn
    
    cmm… I think Callaghan funded Peter Beck and Rocket Lab. Must be other stuff as well.
    I recall the current Callaghan CEO was a bit on the DEI side. A refugee from some other outfit.
    
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    January 23, 2025 7:55pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      He got less than $10 M from Callaghan.
      
      Most of the $200 M he needed to set up came from the USA.
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/rocket-lab-founder-peter-beck-blasts-lack-of-nz-venture-capital-for-other-firms/RFMHCDBUWVXBUC6ROEUEJOL6U4/
      
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      January 23, 2025 8:16pm
    - cmm
      
      So what? Successful people get public funding.
      
      They also funded that Marton Jetpack guy a crazy amount of money to pursue his crazy hobby and that went nowhere.
      
      At least if they do invest then the NZ taxpayer should become a shareholder so that the taxpayer can claw back some of the money.
      
      Venture capital is high risk. The taxpayer should not be subsidising it.
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:02pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Callaghan fell foul of folks who seemed to have nothing to do with Science start-ups.
      
      https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/07-12-2023/auditor-general-issues-damning-findings-into-manaaki-dispute-with-callaghan-innovation
      
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      January 23, 2025 9:32pm
cmm

Luxon says we need lots of economic growth.

He is correct, but even with the best of intentions that growth will not come in a hurry – not in a time that will move the needle.

If you’re a CEO of a company, it is reasonable to talk of increasing the size of a company by 50% or even 100% by massively expanding your customer base or the products you make.

Doing the same for a country is a very different matter. It is extremely difficult to increase the output of a country by more than a handful of % a year – especially when many of the most productive people are leaving the workforce by retiring or moving overseas.

Certainly we can immediately do some things to reduce the bleeding, but we cannot realistically get a massive boost in growth within a few years.

To grow, NZ needs three main things:
1) A focus on encouraging immigration of high quality people.
2) Stripping red tape to encourage business and maximise use of what resources we have.
3) Double the size of our population – mainly by building new cities away from the locations that hamper growth (Auckland and Wellington).

Without all of those it is very hard to see significant growth in NZ.
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January 23, 2025 3:20pm
- greybeard
  
  I agree entirely with this.
  Unfortunately your point No.2 cannot happen until all interference from Greenies and maori is removed from the development and use of resources.
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:31pm
  - cmm
    
    I doubt very much any of those will happen because:
    
    1) No government, including National, are taking steps to make NZ appeal to high-value immigrants (or for that matter retain high value locals).
    2) Cindy killed oil and gas. You can’t unkill those easily. Oil and gas people would be shy to make long term commitments when they know there will be another Cindy along in 2, 5, 8 or 13 years. Those are far too short a timeline to risk the investment.
    3) Growing a population is difficult, especially if you’re trying to focus on quality and not just quantity.
    
    NZ has a massive potential to attract high value immigrants (and retain high value people) with a potentially wonderful lifestyle.
    But to make that work depends on cleaning up some basic problems like education and crime.
    High value people have options. They can go anywhere.
    
    The best that can be done is focus on stuff that can be turned around quickly. Maybe crime is one of those.
    
    So, really, a bunch of warm fuzzy aspirational stuff until we see tangible action.
    
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    January 23, 2025 4:26pm
- Swifty
  
  4) enable a supply of cheap, abundant and reliable energy
  5) enable the successful attraction of large amounts of overseas investment capital
  
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  January 23, 2025 3:34pm
- mogg
  
  Two important factors for Luxon are going to be price stability and lower interest rates. Lower mortgage rates will get people back to spending, business confidence should follow. He knows his future depends on on it.
  
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  January 23, 2025 4:50pm
- Jethrod
  
  We are fortunate to have Sir Brian Roche who is going to research the amount of double/triple/quad etc interference of the civil service in preventing a meaningful transition of government ideas into reality.
  I think it will be a massive help in the economic growth of New Zealand.
  See the Top Stories on KB…. “The Commissioner gets it”
  
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  January 23, 2025 7:51pm
goNZ1

released by Stats today – another record number of NZers hemorrhaging to Oz ,and it aint getting better, who can blame them though?

” The country continues to lose residents in record numbers, and the gain from migration has tumbled to less than a quarter of the record surge a year ago.

Stats NZ said 127,800 people left the country in the year ended November 2024, offset by the arrival of more than 158,400 immigrants.

The department says the bulk of people leaving the country were headed to Australia, while immigration was dominated by returning New Zealanders and people from India, China, and the Philippines.
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January 23, 2025 3:45pm
- cmm
  
  “people from India, China, and the Philippines.” tells us little.
  
  Were they future Uber drivers or engineers and doctors?
  
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  January 23, 2025 4:29pm
  - MCōs
    
    How does an Uber driver get a work permit?
    
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    January 23, 2025 4:33pm
    - mogg
      
      They don’t they get a study visa, if you remember Labour lost control and gave them all permanent residence.
      
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      January 23, 2025 4:53pm
      - MCōs
        
        We had my wife’s niece board with us while she went to an English language school for about six months.
        Her visa allowed her to work around twenty hours a week, which she didn’t take up as it happened.
        She certainly didn’t have PR.
        To get PR after a study visa is/was not as simple as you make out
        https://www.malcolmpacific.com/news/apply-for-residence-after-studying-in-nz
        
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        January 23, 2025 7:25pm
  - cmm
    
    FFS: These are immigrants. That means they have come to live (and work) here.
    
    If we just load up NZ with low end workers then we are on a race to nowhere.
    
    I don’t know what the stats are for NZ, but in UK, the top earning 10% pay over 50% of the tax and the bottom-earning 50% absorb more than half the tax.
    
    Clearly losing those at the top and adding more at the bottom is a recipe for a low-wage economy. Not the magic “growth economy” that Luxon is talking about.
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:58pm
    - kiwimike
      
      same here.
      DPF had an xls from Treasury ages ago showing 167,000 taxpayers earning +$120k a yr paid 90+% of collected tax.
      taking into account WFF…
      
      Doubt it’s changed that much…
      
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      January 24, 2025 12:46am
Ghost

Can’t see how they could prosecute. Easy to say she was going to pay for it at the checkout, they stopped her while still shopping.

Auckland City Police have decided not to file charges against former MP Golriz Ghahraman over a recent alleged shoplifting incident.
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January 23, 2025 4:17pm
- MCōs
  
  Who made the allegation if it wasn’t Foodstuffs?
  
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  January 23, 2025 4:49pm
  - Ghost
    
    Good question. But this is concerning
    
    In 2022 police were inventing crimes get around to the rules
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/privacy-commissioner-digs-into-golriz-ghahraman-shopping-incident/ATNGPRU6WFAADOR3GUA7HVKVE4/
    
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    January 23, 2025 4:55pm
    - Ghost
      
      Found the 2022 article
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-talk-of-auditing-its-use-of-the-powerful-surveillance-network-it-accessed-by-creating-a-fake-stolen-car-alert/COMP7B36KPEVOEQJSJULOQBAEI/
      
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      January 23, 2025 5:09pm
- fernglas
  
  Interesting that the Police said that they considered both evidential sufficiency and whether a prosecution was in the public interest, and decided not to proceed because a prosecution was not in the public interest, mentioning that the item was worth less than $40. That means they did consider that there was evidential sufficiency. If the item(s) had been worth more, the decision may well have gone the other way. So for Ghahraman to say that she was pleased the the Police had reached “the right decision” is somewhat disingenuous. She should really learn to keep her mouth shut.
  
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  January 23, 2025 6:45pm
  - Swifty
    
    Exactly right fermglas, well summarised.
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:02pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Does this mean I can safely shoplift goods less than $40, as surely it wouldn’t be in the “public interest” to prosecute a little old nobody like me?
    
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    January 23, 2025 8:33pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Done, you’re fired!.

Don’t get too upset, this is just the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbd46HQQgS8
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January 23, 2025 5:11pm
- fernglas
  
  Yet another request for you to tell us what we are supposed to spend our time looking at, please. Although the “you’re fired” is a hint.
  
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  January 23, 2025 6:48pm

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