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February 13, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 13 February 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

We’re used to the big picture, wars and UN and Presidents and the threat of nuclear war but what about the small one? One of the challenges facing the world is much bigger than the 2 million Palestinians needing housing – what about the 9 million Syrians? Host countries are forcing Syrian refugees to go home now that the Assad family has gone to live in Russia. There’s no appetite for the scale of reconstruction needed. Gaza has got all the attention but Syria is much the bigger challenge. To say nothing of the Congo and any one of a dozen other African countries with similar problems. Sudan anyone? Where’s Chloe’s scarf for them? No PR mileage in a whole lot of nameless blacks.
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February 13, 2025 8:01am
- G152
  
  The world of small dictatorships is always at war with itself or someone on a border…. Chloe is simply an enabler
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:32am
- cmm
  
  Why is it our problem to fix the DRC etc?
  
  We get told that Africa doesn’t need Colonialsists. Fine. Let them all fix it themselves.
  
  DRC is far more complex than the Middle East. There are at least 100 different armed groups in DRC who change allegiance as the wind blows.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:01am
  - Cassandra
    
    I don’t think I’m saying NZ should fix the Congo. I’m saying that worrying about the Palestinians is a minor matter compared to, for example, Syria and Sudan. Concerns for the world community – your money is already going towards it via NZ funding for all sorts of UN bodies – but none of it is NZ’s responsibility. So why do Green MPs wear a keffiyehs?
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:25am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      Problems that can plausibly be blamed on white people are their top priority.
      
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      February 13, 2025 9:38am
    - cmm
      
      Why do they wear dishrags? It is because this is in line with their core principles/values: doing everything possible to undermine Westernism.
      
      It has nothing to do with caring about Gazan people. It is all about putting the boot into Israel and, by extension, the West.
      
      Syria, Mozambique, DRC etc provide no opportunity to boot the West so there is no interest there.
      
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      February 13, 2025 9:40am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Chlöe had it round her neck at Waitangi
        
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        February 13, 2025 11:40am
    - Paulus
      
      Much of our money into the Internationl UN type schemes just dissapears like the US$ 46 billion that is just lost.
      
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      February 13, 2025 3:16pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    There are crucial mineral deposits in The Congo, not just the old favorites like gold, diamonds and copper but also cobalt coltan vital for modern industry.
    Anyone who can get them has an advantage over anyone who can’t.
    Power flows in the direction of food it can eat.
    
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    February 13, 2025 7:07pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  The US was very aware of what was needed after WW2 with the efforts put into the rebuild of West Germany under the Marshall Plan and Japan under MacArthur.
  
  That the allied nations were prepared to share the cost resulted in a lasting peace that continues to endure.
  
  We need a similar approach in Syria and Gaza, and the Arab States have the ability to bankroll such measures, but lack the will to do.
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:28pm
  - Paulus
    
    And dropped Britain into Bankruptcy at the same time after reneging on Lend Lease arrangements.
    The US have not changed.
    
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    February 13, 2025 3:19pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    There’s a subtle difference between post war Europe and present day Gaza, and it ain’t the money.
    
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    February 13, 2025 7:04pm
Benedict Yu

Here is another weird government job ad. I could have picked one of 100 but picked this one. Pharmac. 🤡

Now some background.

In July 2024, David Seymour told them to ditch the promotion of the Treaty in deciding on access to drugs.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/pharmac-told-by-minister-to-ditch-treaty-of-waitangi-consideration-and-improve-trust/2FBRP3ZFDZCABPAHNBK57ABXFI/

Now I am not suggesting that they have ignored this directive. However you would think that the directive would have made them consider their recruitment criteria.

No.

This is an advertisement for someone to process OIA requests. That is it. That is all they will do.

https://www.seek.co.nz/job/82005989?type=standard&ref=search-standalone#sol=b2b57dac21b49b63ab80edc8c89c3bc8c7a00d54

I know exactly what that job requires. An excellent knowledge of the Act and good organisational skills. I have first hand experience. Years ago but the Act has not changed.

Yet here you need…

“Understanding of te ao Māori and te Tiriti o Waitangi or display a willingness and commitment to learn.”

No. You do not need to know this. The Act says nothing about te ao Maori. 🙁 😩 It is not part of processing OIA requests.

Also…..

“At Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga we welcome all kaimahi with a mihi whakatau during their first month.”

Yay 😕

From the job description..

“Uphold te Tiriti o Waitangi, including the preamble and the three articles, along with the Ritenga Māori declaration to advance Māori health and aspirations.
….
“Involve Māori in the design and delivery of relevant Pharmac operating policies and procedures.”

“Actively incorporate knowledge of te ao Māori into work and show a commitment to develop individual [competency] “..

https://careers.pharmac.govt.nz/jobdetails/ajid/MdYm7/Senior-Advisor-Government-Services,14300.html

There is then stuff on a commitment to DEI. 😩

There are many people who could competently administer OIA requests who will just think “No way “.

Will any of this get your OIA request processed faster? No. The exact opposite will happen.

Remember, David Seymour is the responsible Minister. 🤡

I will not keep posting these stories. I could literally do it every day for the rest of the year. I have made my point.
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February 13, 2025 8:05am
- Frank the tank
  
  It is clear as day this government is unprepared to take on the public service. Whether this is due to legislative and legal reasons or the government just don’t want to is a moot point. I’m now certain this is the major driver in NZ’s woes.
  
  The current US administration is showing how it is done which is the political equivalent of Blitzkrieg. This is already proving to be successful political therefore see this being aped across the rest of the world outside of here over the next 2 years including Australia. This is right up Dutton’s wheelhouse.
  
  It is appearing more likely by the day that in 2026 we will elect a coalition that will not only accelerate the current embedment of this ideology but cement this in a way that almost impossible to reverse. I don’t believe this trajectory to 2026 will change with any of the other top members of National such as Willis, Stanford or Bishop. They all share the same views as Luxon.
  
  The only hope we have is out of the ashes a phoenix arises in the style of Trump, Farage or Millei. I just can’t see who it will be – we just lack this type of character.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:17am
  - thirteenstars
    
    Farage will have the same problem should he be placed in the highest position.
    
    Trump and Milei have true executive power being part of a federal system with distinct and counterbalancing branches of government.
    
    I’ve long thought that our form of parliamentary system was fine as far as it goes but in a postmodern world where the tactic of capturing institutions and fomenting a quiet insurgency within the public service is fully underway, that our system reveals its weaknesses and dangers.
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:31am
    - GJM
      
      The NZ Parliment can apss a law in 7 minutes if it gives MPs a payrise. FUrher more, there is (currently) no upper house, so as Jacinda showed, ram through a law and you are good to go. It would be interesting to see what the leftie GOvener General does if someone takes advantage of this and goes all Trump.
      In many cases of course, it doesn’t need a law change, as there are other levers like disestablishing the department, defunding it, replacing the board and CEO, etc.
      
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      February 13, 2025 2:37pm
  - Damocles11
    
    National have no interest in taking on Maorification and DEI anywhere, and the reason – as stated before – is because their corporate masters don’t want this stuff rolled back, they want it embedded. Take a look at the ads on TV, they are slathered in wokeism and maorification. ‘Aotearoa – Our Magnificent Waka!’ brays one ad, while another for a power company virtue signals like crazy about the climate scam…”we’re not just using fossil fuels these days” says a wokester, opening his laptop to a show a picture of the Clyde Dam – constructed between 1982 and 1993. On and on the ads come, populated by bizarre left wing caricatures and full of wokeism. Luxon implemented this stuff at Air New Zealand, of course he is fully on board with it. National believes if they just say the right words while doing nothing, their rusted on supporters will stay onboard the blue train.
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:02pm
    - Paulus
      
      I don’t think on TVNZ that the word New Zealand are now ever mentioned – alwcays the other place alongside, many Cities like the country’s biggest Auckland, never mentioned.
      
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      February 13, 2025 3:22pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    This is a cultural problem that has been generations in the making and won’t be stopped by legislation from the top.
    Now I think that Trump has many talents that are woefully underappreciated and even downright slandered by the Professional Managerial Caste, but there is no way he can be considered a political or social philosopher.
    He is now in the process of gutting Washington’s PMC and Deep State because he now has the allegiance of a small dissident counter-elite. The MAGA red-necks who would “bitterly cling” to their flag, guns and bibles, have now been joined by the techno-bros who actually have the tools and knowledge to cut the beast at its joints.
    In Curtis Yarvin’s topology the Hobbits have been joined with the Dark Elves.
    Where is that counter-elite in NZ?
    
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    February 13, 2025 7:22pm
- Matt Long
  
  Where’s this racist country where a girl can’t train to be a veterinarian because her parents happen to be white?
  Probably South Africa, but it could just as well be New Zealand.
  https://x.com/twatterbaas/status/1889704244795629661
  https://x.com/franks_lawyer/status/1889672187931713809
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:24am
  - cmm
    
    My sister is a nurse in South Africa.
    She is fluent in Zulu and Xhosa (the highest % AIDS sufferers in the world).
    She attended Stellenbosch universtiy for a year doing specialised AIDS training.
    
    She cannot get a job working in a hospital because her skin is the wrong colour, so she has done low-key nursing jobs like being an industrial nurse (handing out asprin to people with headaches and contraceptives in factories etc).
    
    A doctor I went to school with has almost the same story, except being a doctor instead of a nurse. In her case it was around 2 years of specialised AIDs training etc. After 10 years of this she buggered off to San Francisco to work with the gay community there.
    
    This is a complete waste of extremely rare critical skills. But, hey, the corruption comes first.
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:24am
    - Kiwiguy
      
      Where are these factories that hand out contraceptives?
      Any jobs going?
      Asking for a friend.
      
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      February 13, 2025 9:53am
      - cmm
        
        Ironically it is a rubber factory.
        
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        February 13, 2025 11:12am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  And Paula Bennett is the Chair of the Board setting the strategic direction of the organisation, presumably she is ok with this crap as helping to set the aforementioned strategic direction and meet the improvement in performance that Judith Collins as
  Public Services minster wants to see.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:29am
  - NK
    
    Of course. As a lot of us keep saying, National has no guts nor courage and is only in power to manage the decline better than Labour. Is this not obvious to everybody now?
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:11am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Seymour is the minister ffs, this should be addressed by him
      
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      February 13, 2025 11:52am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No you don’t, Seymour is the minister, he sets the boundary for his board, if not, then he is not doing his job, just like no action on regulation, no plan, no announcement, nothing.
    
    No wonder Act has dropped a third of their support in the January Morgan poll
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:51am
    - Paulus
      
      Does his new Department role not start until 1st March (or 1st April) ?
      
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      February 13, 2025 3:24pm
    - kiwikidsnz
      
      …after ACT increased its support a third in the RM December poll, so back where they were in November
      
      Poll sample population size & volatility
      
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      February 13, 2025 6:19pm
- Cassandra
  
  All workers are greeted by some sort of Maori ceremony? Amazing. It is indicative of the way Maori culture has captured the system, the slow march through the institutions. Can it be stopped? Of course. If the Government had tackled this with urgency it’d be all over. But instead they all took a summer holiday and now half through its term it’s still going on. In November 23 the CEOs should have been given a one page directive. Here’s your budget. Reduce the staff and cut the BS by 1 February.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:35am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Note that most agencies expect staff to learn opening and closing karakia. You do not need to know what they mean but you must learn them to use at the beginning and closure of many meetings.
    
    Is it all agencies? No
    
    Is it all meetings? No
    
    Is the requirement to embrace Maori cultural practices in the state sector accelerating and deepening? Yes.
    
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    February 13, 2025 8:41am
    - Burtland
      
      Stats have karakia printed on their lanyards – totally brainwashed
      
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      February 13, 2025 9:42am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “But instead they all took a summer holiday …”
    
    So far, two summer holidays, all stat holidays, plus school holidays, not sure if they take the teacher only days off!!
    
    What financial crisis?
    
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    February 13, 2025 8:52am
  - Paulus
    
    No, it is 30 years too late to stop, or even slow down.
    
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    February 13, 2025 3:24pm
    - kiwimike
      
      Rubbish you national supporter you !! -:)//sarc
      
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      February 13, 2025 5:29pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    I’ll just keep on saying this until people take it seriously.
    This is NOT Maori culture.
    This is the culture of the elite Professional Managerial Caste (PMC) that has adopted superficial elements of Maori culture to advance their own agenda in a specific NZ context.
    I’ll just take one example for now, those so called Maori spiritual practices infiltrating NZ science and business.
    NONE of them are being directed by a Maori priest or a Tohunga Shaman, they are being created and directed by PMC bureaucrats.
    You can tell the difference between the two because a legitimate Priest or Shaman doesn’t give a damn about what the management tells them to do, and they aren’t interested in getting a government paycheck. They are getting their instructions from another power entirely.
    The PMC has no interest in genuine spiritual practices, but they have great interest in obscurantist bullshit. In a modern Liberal Democracy you are allowed you follow any religion you like as long as it is weak, fake and gay.
    A genuinely powerful Priest or Holy Man would cause the PMC to freak the hell out.
    
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    February 13, 2025 7:42pm
- Grunter
  
  “Now I am not suggesting that they have ignored this directive.”
  
  Yes they have! A blatant disregard of what Seymour directed.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:40am
  - RoboRob
    
    Yes it is. This post should be forwarded to Syemour. I have no idea if his staff follow this blog.
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:52am
    - pdm
      
      Done RR – scroll down a bit.
      
      Email address I used is there too – so into it.
      
      The more the merrier and maybe the more impact.
      
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      February 13, 2025 10:08am
      - wsk12345
        
        Well they have responded with some improvements!
        
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        February 13, 2025 2:25pm
- muzled
  
  jeesus wept, the first four paragraphs in that JD would have most people running a mile!
  
  I think it’s good you post these BY, it’s a good way or raising how entrenched the treaty waffle has become.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:41am
  - artemisia
    
    Agree, please carry on BY. Kiwiblog has a wide readership including Ministers and their staffers.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:14am
    - Paulus
      
      Agreed – on behalf of a number of us oldies to David Seymour, via his staff readers, simple.
      Wind your neck in – Grow up to the job !
      – until now we are waverers on National list votes but want to see better of you especially if you cherish Deputy Prime Minister – we will watch carefully.
      
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      February 13, 2025 3:29pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I’ll reserve future posts for truly amazing examples 😀 As I said I could literally post examples like today’s from pharmac every day for months.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:13pm
- Scooter
  
  BY. Seriously the first paragraph is unintelligible and the second is really saying, we only represent Maori and will exclude all others and don’t even think about having any individual thought or going off script.
  
  In any case the perks look good (2 days a week at home and whatever “An annual $500 hauora payment for eligible kaimahi” is).
  
  “At Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga we welcome all kaimahi with a mihi whakatau during their first month. For kaimahi Māori, we offer mihi whakatau on your first day, where your whānau and manuhiri are welcome to attend. As you come through our waharoa, you will be welcomed into our growing support network – Maōri Caucus.
  
  We strive to represent Aotearoa and the diverse communities we serve. We are committed to championing workplace inclusion and acknowledge that in order to do their best work, we must foster an environment where people are comfortable to be themselves and work in a way that best suits their individual needs.”
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:42am
  - Taieri
    
    an environment where people are comfortable to be themselves and work in a way that best suits their individual needs.
    ————
    
    Time was when people worked in a way that best suited their employer. That’s the reason they were employed after all…
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:16am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Employers have been turned into caregivers.
      
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      February 13, 2025 12:54pm
  - Dave
    
    A big uptick from me.
    
    They might say they strive to represent all communities, but I don’t think we will see advertisements splattered with Hindi or Chinese any time soon, and if we did, would anyone doubt that the advertised jobs were for someone from those groups – no one else need apply? And is this job to represent all communities or to serve all communities?
    
    On a different but related matters:
    
    1) Support for ritenga Maori, the fourth article which didn’t make it into the ToW, is now required. How does that improve responses to OIA requests?
    
    2) Knowledge of the Preamble to the ToW is also required. Same question as #1. And another question – will it help improve my employment chances if I show my knowledge of the Preamble by quoting this part from it, “… to treat with the Aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty’s sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands”?
    
    Oh well, time for a polite but clearly furious email to some MPs.
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:47am
  - RoboRob
    
    “An annual $500 hauora payment for eligible kaimahi”
    
    This is my whole issue with Manglish. You shouldn’t need a translator to read a job description. How is this even sensible communication, > 90% of Maori wouldn’t know wtf this is.
    
    After google translate, and you have to do it word by word becuase the sentence is a mixture of two languages, this is ‘An annual $500 health payment for eligible workers’. WTF is a health payment? What makes you ineligible for the payment?
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:57am
    - Scooter
      
      I thought “Hauora” sounded familiar, different spelling though.
      
      Haura Name Meaning
      The distinctly whorish quality emanating from a female
      
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      February 13, 2025 10:42pm
  - rouppe
    
    An annual $500 hauora payment for eligible kaimahi”
    
    That’s $500 “wellness” payment, for “eligible” workers.
    
    Who is eligible I ask myself? I really don’t hold out much hope it won’t just be Maori
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:06am
  - PurplePen
    
    I’m going to ask the barber that cuts my hair whether he knows what any of that means. He’s Maori and he looks like one too so he might be sufficiently Maori.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:14pm
- graham
  
  “… we welcome all kaimahi with a mihi whakatau during their first month …”
  
  Last week there was a discussion on KB about how many Maori words the average person might know. Some said 100, some said less.
  
  I have no idea what a mihi whakatau might be – a ceremony of some sort, perhaps? – and can only guess from the context that kaimahi might mean new starters?
  
  What on earth is the point of writing like this? Is it some sort of pre-interview test to weed out people who don’t understand the words and can’t be bothered to work their way through such a mish-mash of Manglish?
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:48am
  - Burtland
    
    its to make sure no pakeha apply – saves HR being racist
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:46am
  - Scooter
    
    I Google translated Mihi Whakatau and it says “thank you, decision”. That in itself means nothing in context of the article. So I then Googled it below, which I suppose is the meaning. However, what an effing waste of time if every time you need to translate a word and get different answers. Who has the time or desire to do this? Our kids can barely read and write English or do maths etc let alone translate these random frankly made up words that never existed before some wokester decided we needed to reinvent the Maori language.
    
    “In Māori, a mihi or mihi whakatau is a formal or semi-formal speech or speeches of greeting at a meeting such as a hui. The speech acknowledges those present, and may be accompanied by other ritual greetings or acknowledgements, such as pōwhiri, wero, or recital of pepeha.”
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:59am
  - sirknz
    
    Kai=food, mahi=work.
    
    Work lunch or eating your colleagues?
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:59am
  - Scooter
    
    Graham I think the point of job ads like this is only the woke will apply and so will comply and go along with the rest of the bullshittery.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:02am
  - Jake Dee
    
    “What on earth is the point of writing like this?”
    It’s a loyalty test to show that you are onboard with the current political program.
    As I have mentioned before, nobody is writing actual technical instruction manuals in Te Reo Maori. This is because the political allegiance of your plumber, electrician or mechanic is considered unimportant.
    
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    February 13, 2025 7:49pm
- pdm
  
  I have emailed the add to David Seymour.
  
  Here is his email address if anyone else wishes to:
  [email protected]
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:53am
  - RoboRob
    
    I emailed him the following
    
    Hi David
    
    I am emailing you because you are the associate minister for Pharmac. I voted for you and I think (hope) you follow a harder line on the issues below then National do.
    
    The following job advert has come to my attention
    
    https://www.seek.co.nz/job/82005989?type=standard&ref=search-standalone#sol=b2b57dac21b49b63ab80edc8c89c3bc8c7a00d54
    
    The job is for someone to handle OIA requests for the agency that purchases medication for New Zealand. Although you would be hard pressed to know that based on the level of Maori used. I needed Google translate to understand some of whats written..
    
    It seems to me that there are at least the following issues
    
    a) The organisation is ignoring the government’s request have clear communication, primarily in English.
    b) Why Does a job processing OIA requests really require ‘Understanding of te ao Māori and te Tiriti o Waitangi or display a willingness and commitment to learn’ and ‘Actively incorporate knowledge of te ao Māori into work and show a commitment to develop’
    c) Why is the department, who is supposed to be saving money, doing ‘At Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga we welcome all kaimahi with a mihi whakatau during their first month’ and ‘For kaimahi Māori, we offer mihi whakatau on your first day, where your whānau and manuhiri are welcome to attend’
    d) Why are we having separate leadership groups within government organisations… ‘As you come through our waharoa, you will be welcomed into our growing support network – Maōri Caucus’
    e) Even though they say they work for the health of all New Zealanders they still feel the need to say ‘Through our work on behalf of Aotearoa we strive to improve equitable health outcomes for Māori and advance Māori health aspirations’. I thought you had stated publicly that the treaty / race would not be part in selecting drugs?
    
    I see this ‘stuff’ spreading through all government agencies. Whilst the government has stated agencies need to cut waste and focus on delivery, it seems like the various ministries have continued on with their DEI and Maori regardless.
    
    Is this government all talk, or do they (you) really think this stuff is core to all departments? Perhaps the government needs to be clear about expectations and use / provide a stick where required. Perhaps some legislation?
    
    Regards
    Rob
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:28am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He is not associate minister of pharmac, he is the minister, he is associate minister of health, but it was him and only him that was speaking over Labours non funding of pharmac
      
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      February 13, 2025 11:55am
      - Ghost
        
        No. Seymour is an associate minister of health. There is no separate pharmac minister
        
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        February 13, 2025 12:14pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Ghost.
        
        You are right, but he has been given the job of all things pharmac, have a closer look
        
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        February 13, 2025 2:57pm
      - Ghost
        
        Of course Im right, you are wrong, he is not minister. He is Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac
        
        Suggest you actual go look at his letter of expectations and report back to us on what he has signed it, hint, it is not imaginary pharmac minister
        
        https://pharmac.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Letter-of-Expectations-2024-25.pdf
        
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        February 13, 2025 3:10pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Please put up his reply if it’s not automated if you receive one.
    
    With the Morgan poll showing Act dropping 4% I think he has given up
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:54am
    - Damocles11
      
      Your comments are getting less credible by the day. It’s not our fault Luxon is weak and woke.
      
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      February 13, 2025 7:37pm
- Matt Long
  
  More on Nicole McKee’s efforts to rein in the stupidity of the REA, she first directed the board to pull their heads in a year ago and was ignored.
  Missing from the reporting according to what I’ve been told is that Ms Dickson believed the course would entail her taking part in pagan rites that conflicted with her religious convictions.
  
  https://lawnews.nz/property/govt-moves-to-nullify-court-ruling-on-compulsory-maori-studies-for-realtors/?ref=goodoil.news
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:53am
- alex Masterley
  
  Dear lord that advert is a complete turnoff to any competent applicant.
  My firm is going through a hiring process at the moment. DIE doesnt come into the hiring process. Neither does race.
  We look for a sound academic record, competence, the ablity to communicate clearly and concisely, and the ability to get on and work with staff and most importantly our clients.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:57am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I think you have just highlighted the major problem with “that advert is a complete turnoff to any competent applicant”.
    As you say, the best qualified to do the job probably don’t bother applying and we end up with what we’ve got.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:39am
  - Paulus
    
    You will be Lucky !
    
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    February 13, 2025 3:32pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Then why has t the great saviour Seymour told them to remove it? And done say he was forced to let it happen, as Collins was suggesting yesterday this crap has to stop
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:42am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Glad you pointed who the minister was.
  
  Isn’t it funny yesterday was all the ministers fault, yet today no mention by the usual suspects.
  
  No wonder Act has dropped 4% in the Morgan poll splitting their support hslf to Nats and half to NZF. It’s not working for him, and I can see him chucking it in, he has already stated he will leave politics if the country goes back to the left
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:47am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  We could also note that the Institue of Public Administration of NZ (IPANZ), has also failed to read the room.
  
  This week it renamed itself “Hapai Public” with a focus on collaboration (whanaungatanga), capability (akoranga), and being a catalyst for positive change (kaitiakitanga).
  
  The old focus on professionalism, excellence and performance was apparently making “some people” feel that it was not inclusive enough.
  
  IPANZ used to be independent, but was subsumed by Peter Hughes into the control of the PSC, and is now “independently” a reliable cheer leader for the dominant ideology of the public service senior executives who represent the unelected government.
  
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  February 13, 2025 12:43pm
- surfing
  
  It will be very hard to unwind this nonsense.
  
  The government is actively discriminating against non-maori. Being Maori is a great advantage , you can get some very high level and well paying jobs just on your race alone.
  
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  February 13, 2025 1:02pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  It’s all utterly stuffed Benedict.
  
  All these various Ministries and QANGOs have this nonsense embedded in their systems, God forbid they concentrate on their core tasks.
  
  All the highly paid mandarins running these outfits should be sacked. Start alphabetically and by the time you get to around G or H they might get the hint.
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:30pm
- Mr T
  
  Can you forward this to Seymour??
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:54pm
Grunter

Good news overnight. The Trump Administration announce that the US will not allow Ukraine into NATO. This ends 17 years of US pushing this plan. Trump also spoke to Putin for 90 mins and then Zelensky regards peace talks.

At last sensible heads attempting to end unnecessary war.
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February 13, 2025 8:06am
- Cassandra
  
  So Russia decides who joins NATO? Why is that a good idea?
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:29am
  - Grunter
    
    Because it stops a war, surely that is good news?
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:15am
    - Cassandra
      
      Like Czechoslovakia? How’s your memory?
      
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      February 13, 2025 10:58am
  - thirteenstars
    
    “So Russia decides who joins NATO?”
    
    Do they? Sounds like it’s the US that’s deciding who joins NATO, which is their right as a member with veto power.
    
    The only alternative is to escalate the war by directly involving NATO forces. That will surely result in Russia’s defeat and in very quick order. It might also result in the explicit threat of nuclear retaliation.
    
    Why is that a good idea?
    
    Of course the US could merely withdraw all military support which would result in Ukraine’s eventual defeat.
    
    Is that a good idea?
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:55am
    - Taieri
      
      That will surely result in Russia’s defeat and in very quick order.
      ——–
      
      Not necessarily.
      Unfortunately, the sheer size of Russia (if nothing else) makes it impossible to defeat it.
      
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      February 13, 2025 1:28pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        That’s obviously not what defeating Russia means in this context. It means expelling Russian forces from the territory they have occupied and inflicting a debilitating level of damage on their land and air forces making it impossible for them to mount any meaningful counteroffensive.
        
        Russia and NATO are unequal forces with NATO by far the more powerful and capable force. Hence the prospect that Putin would be likely to issue threats about nuclear escalation which is why Ukraine can’t be admitted to NATO.
        
        It’s called realpolitik.
        
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        February 13, 2025 1:59pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      “That will surely result in Russia’s defeat and in very quick order.”
      Sarcasm right?
      Take some time to do a real calculation of what it would take to push Russia out of Crimea and back to its 1991 borders.
      Being generous to NATO and not including the nuclear Armageddon angle, I reckon it would take a minimum of 100,000 troopers, 5~6 armored divisions, a massive amount of that shipped across the Atlantic. Plus 3~5 years of total war with several battles of Stalingrad and Borodino along the way.
      NATO doesn’t have the army, it doesn’t have the industry, it doesn’t have the money and most importantly it doesn’t have the will power.
      Any NATO government that goes for mass mobilization for a war in the east with Russia is doomed.
      If the call went out for a gigantic brutal war to defend western liberal democracy against eastern autocracy, then the vast majority of the western people (young men) who would actually be required to fight and die in that war would just say “Screw you, I’m staying home”.
      
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      February 13, 2025 8:11pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    The NATO charter does. Any country with disputed borders is and always has been ineligible for membership.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:17pm
- Burtland
  
  Trump succumbs to Russian flattery
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:55am
  - Grunter
    
    Was that a BBC headline? You know, the USAID funded BBC….?
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:16am
    - sungsamning
      
      And the rest of the fake news too.
      
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      February 13, 2025 1:08pm
  - Jethrod
    
    Just part of the deal, and there will be bartering going on also.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:23am
  - Don Beckett
    
    What a stupid thing to say.
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:04am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Trump succumbs to Russian flattery
    
    Trump succumbs to common sense.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:06pm
- MCōs
  
  I hear talks are taking place in Munich
  How ironic is that!
  Of course Trump probably doesn’t even know anything about the Munich Agreement 1938
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:50am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That’s not what Hegseth said, he said those things take time and will not happen during this war, which will be finished this year.
  
  Putin is asking Trump openly today about how to get out of this war, they handed a prisoner back in good faith yesterday, and I hear another one is being freed today
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:58am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Daft, why would you disclose your position before entering into discussions?
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:32pm
- Eastlander
  
  The Ukrainian presidential decree against negotiations with the federation is still in effect. The conditions of the alleged Trump peace plan manage to be unacceptable to both sides. He does not have the means to strong-arm the Russians, and he can’t force the Ukrainians to agree to anything unless he’s actually willing to cut them loose entirely and let the chips fall where they may – and this would be a defeat, for which he would be blamed.
  
  Another year of fighting at least.
  
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  February 13, 2025 4:37pm
Grunter

Here’s the Fact Sheet for the new Investor Visas.

This is more garbage from the Nats. This is NOT targeting ‘direct’ investment. It actually allows foreigners to get a NZ passport by building a house, buying govt bonds, or putting money into a passive managed fund.

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2025-02/Unlocking%20investment%20in%20NZ%20Factsheet.pdf
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February 13, 2025 8:13am
- thirteenstars
  
  Yes, it’s a very weak policy that can only result in an uptick in property prices.
  
  Just seems like wasted time and effort when so much more important effort is required and time is running out for this government.
  
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  February 13, 2025 12:01pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Looks like it took them nearly half an hour to come up with that piece of economic genius.
  
  If they are trying to attract non English speakers to apply, are we to assume that the English speakers said no?
  
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  February 13, 2025 1:10pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Building a house is only giving them the right to build or own a house. The money must go to investment in business
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:11pm
  - Grunter
    
    G
    You obviously didn’t read the Fact Sheet. Or you are just being deliberately antagonistic as usual.
    
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    February 13, 2025 4:02pm
David Garrett

Stuff has a headline “Te Pati Maori MP guilty of deliberately misleading the House” – and then…Nothing! What’s the story? Where is the story?
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February 13, 2025 8:15am
- imalwaysright
  
  Te Partly Maori.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:17am
- peterwn
  
  I think I can fill in the gap – the wet bus ticket. I doubt Privileges Committee would ground the MP for a week.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:20am
- Matt Long
  
  It’s not a story, it’s house business as usual.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:25am
  - David Garrett
    
    And now the headline has also vanished…and we are supposed to trust the MSM so much that we donate money to them?
    
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    February 13, 2025 8:29am
    - Grunter
      
      Come on David – you know better than that…..”…and we are supposed to trust the MSM….” 🤣
      
      USAID funds have been stopped but not NZ taxpayers funds…..so the propaganda continues.
      
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      February 13, 2025 8:43am
      - kowtow
        
        Te NZ media , being as pathetically parochial as they are always seek a NZ perspective to international stories .
        
        Plane crash ! No kiwis killed .
        Gaza bombing ! Kiwi relations aghast.
        
        Etc
        
        But now there’s a stroy that a lot of the local media appear , appear , to have been funded somewhat by USAID .
        
        I would expect some coverage , even a teeny weeny bit.
        
        I recall the NZ media’s massive disappointment when Key wasn’t featured or even involved in the media beatup that was the Panama papers and that the NZ media weren’t part of or included in the Big Reveal !
        
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        February 13, 2025 9:09am
      - Paulus
        
        Are we not told that some of USAID money comes to the media in New Zealand, possibly via New Zealand on Air, along with Taxpayers PIJF, which I thought was to be cancelled last June !
        
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        February 13, 2025 3:36pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The “Stuff” story was just a rehash of this piece from RNZ
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/541662/te-pati-maori-mp-deliberately-misled-house-made-to-apologise
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:50am
  - RoboRob
    
    Pathetic. Made to apologise and he did it after hours in Te Reo.
    
    Wow the punishment. That will stop it happening again.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:31am
- Ra Henare
  
  I read the content.??
  Not sure what you didn’t read?
  (I read the version on Newstalk Zb, their news is sourced from the Herald.)
  
  It was about the Maori MP accusing some MPs of lying(A no no)
  Then denying it, when it was recorded on Hansard(and I suspect the recording devices in the Chamber)
  Privileges committee gave him the opportunity to recant and also invited him to the committee hearing to defend himself.
  
  Suffering a dose of arrogance, he sent a letter repeating what he said was not calling MPS liars.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:54am
- pdm
  
  DG It is Ferris who must apologise to The House next time he is in the debating chamber – for accusing all other MP’s of being liars before Christmas.
  
  I saw him late last evening (9.30pm approx) making a speech so assume he would have made the apology at that time.
  
  Then again it is Ferris and the Maori Party so maybe not.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:59am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I think he gave an explanation/apology… but who knows?
    
    This is what Hansard records:
    PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS
    
    Privileges Committee Report—Member Conduct
    
    TĀKUTA FERRIS (Te Pāti Māori —Te Tai Tonga):
    
    [Authorised reo Māori text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
    
    [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
    
    Continuation: BROWN 19.31.18 “Well, Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak”
    
    https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20250212_20250212_36
    
    And I’m buggered if I can locate the accompanying video clip to hear what he said in Te Reo.
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:30am
    - Ghost
      
      Is it this one, I can’t check at the moment
      
      https://videos.parliament.nz/on-demand?id=89829688-fc30-4069-da9e-08dd4b7e6810&members=87c850cf-18f6-4be0-935a-0e24e0a352ae
      
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      February 13, 2025 9:43am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I can get Yesterday’s sitting up.. but I can’t quickly locate Ferris’ explanation….
        
        Now possibly that is because I am thick, computer illiterate, can’t be arsed, going blind, …or a combination of all 4.
        
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        February 13, 2025 9:48am
- oldpark
  
  David talk about half pied stories on sicko lefty so called NZs Main Stream Media .
  Watched TVNZs so called news last evening .
  
  It was about the Two Australian Nurses in Bankstown Hospital in Sydney precinct who threated to kill Israelis who were /or could be treated in that Hospital .
  One of the nurses a male had his face and threats shown .The other a female whose face was completely hidden on screen or pixilated out question was why? After all it was a huge story .
  Got my answer one hour later on Sky News Au . .Same story only this time both faces shown and exposed and threats expanded .The female nurse was wearing a special type of head scarf .
  I am still wondering why TVNZ censored the real truth on the story on the type of ethnic background of the agitators. Go Figure.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:38am
  - Colville
    
    If I publicly said that I wanted to murder(and had previously killed )Muslims I think it would be a matter of nanoseconds before I was in handcuffs in the back of a van having been carried there by a bunch of chaps carrying a lot of firearms!
    
    These Aussies seem to still be at large ? Is it because of the headscarf and ethnic tan?
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:24pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Seems a little ironic that a committee of MPs has ordered him to apologise for lying, when the whole thing only happened because of the ‘rule’ that accusations of lying are not allowed in the house.
  
  If someone is a liar, you should be allowed to call them a liar.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:46am
  - RoboRob
    
    If the Maori party are going to break the rules left right and center then so should other MPs. Call the man a liar. The worst that could happen is getting the afternoon off (kicked out) or perhaps, like this arse, having to apologise.
    
    ‘When x lied in parliament I calling x a Liar, I apologise’.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:36am
  - crikey
    
    NK: “ If someone is a liar, you should be allowed to call them a liar.”
    
    Only if the laws of libel apply in the house.
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:48am
    - David Garrett
      
      Crikey: The House is the only place covered by absolute privilege…MP’s have been successfully sued for defamatory statements made in the parliamentary precincts but not in the House itself
      
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      February 13, 2025 12:45pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Calling someone a liar is a no-no in most workplaces – as my sister belatedly found out last year. The lie has to be inferred.
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:02pm
- Rodney Hide
  
  No MP in the history of the Westminster system has previously been found guilty of misleading the House. Another first for New Zealand.
  
  It was probable Profumo would have been found guilty but he resigned.
  
  Rodney Hide
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:52am
  - Ghost
    
    https://www.brusselstimes.com/554518/boris-johnson-is-first-ever-pm-found-guilty-of-misleading-british-parliament
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:57am
    - Rodney Hide
      
      Thank you Ghost. I did not know that.
      
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      February 13, 2025 12:40pm
  - MCōs
    
    They’re eating the cats
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:54am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      USA doesn’t have a Westminster system.
      
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      February 13, 2025 12:03pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Rodney: I think you mean that a finding of deliberately misleading the House is a First?
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:13pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Just watched his moronic first question to Potaka. He never apologised at the begin of the sitting, he wasn’t there yesterday unless he came back and apologised latter yesterday
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:14pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBrvCFQqbXg
Activist Courts Have Created a Terrifying Constitutional Crisis.
It’s really odd to have low court judges mandating how the executive branch must operate to the degree that they’re mandating what content he must display on his departments websites. Trump’s only option is to defy the orders, or concede his presidency to some random judges acting as executives.
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February 13, 2025 8:15am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Not sure what you are asking for here. Court cases generally start in lower courts. Are you saying people should have no legal recourse if the executive acts illegally? I certainly would want that if the Democrats were in power.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:49am
  - sungsamning
    
    Prof Dershowitz has a good You Tube video on this. I’ll post it tomorrow.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:13pm
- peterwn
  
  In a NZ instance did Fitzgerald v Muldoon create a terrifying constitutional crises? Rob Muldoon made an executive announcement that businesses could stop making payments to Labour’s short lived superannuation scheme. Rob had suspended a law made by Parliament and the Chief Justice (in the High Court, but still a lower court) in breach of the Bill of Rights 1688, which is also New Zealand law. One purpose of that law was to rein in regal and executive power following the departure of James II.
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:05am
- Allan
  
  Trump won’t defy these courts. The ‘optics’ will only give the lying media more opportunity to twist and distort reality.
  
  He will use the system to appeal. The cases will be overturned. Operations will continue with case law made that will inhibit the activist judciary.
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:42am
  - sungsamning
    
    I agree. It won’t take that long either.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:14pm
    - Allan
      
      One has already been overruled.
      
      The first one from last week I think it is.
      
      That’s the one where the judge who has a long history of pro-democrat inclinations issued an injunction at 0100 on a Saturday without any forewarning or Trump legal team in attendance.
      
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      February 13, 2025 5:43pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSE5ATxTCxY
The Ice Men Came.
The fact that they are waving another country’s flag is so disrespectful. You can’t be that much of a refugee if you’re waving the flag of the country you claim to be “seeking asylum” from. [‘Protestors’ were arrested by ICE. Some were waving the flag of the country they’re being deported to. -;)]
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February 13, 2025 8:16am
- MCōs
  
  I expect they are refugees because of the regime currently ruling the country not the country itself which the flag represents
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:14am
  - sungsamning
    
    Maybe. Not a good look waving the flag of the country from which they’re a ‘refugee’ though.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:15pm
Southern Raider

The two anti Semitic nurses in Sydney show up the continued failing of western Govts to allow immigrants who don’t have the same values as their host countries and just bring their prejudices and hate with them.

NZ is no better where the Police and Coalition have still done nothing about John Minto and last weekend we had protesters in Queen Street openly supporting Hamas.
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February 13, 2025 8:21am
- kowtow
  
  Platform Plunket had same issues with a medico in Wellington.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:11am
imalwaysright

Good to see that Faucci is still on the hook for what he’s done.
State level prosecutors are looking at their ability to investigate/ prosecute him.
https://www.wnd.com/2025/02/state-officials-ask-congress-for-evidence-about-faucis-actions-that-could-support-prosecution/
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February 13, 2025 8:24am
Matt Long

NZ is open for business as one of the most corrupt racist countries to do business in, in the developed world.
https://x.com/TheRedbaiter/status/1889494977413275827
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February 13, 2025 8:28am
Bridgenag

KILL SWITCH
THE ORDER THAT SEVERS THE SYSTEM

Medicaid: $81 billion vanished
Medicare: $47 billion disappeared
Paycheck Protection: $29 billion gone
Unemployment Insurance: $19 billion lost
Earned Income Tax Credit: $18 billion missing

““If things are decided not by elected representatives but by bureaucracy, then what meaning does democracy actually have?””

https://open.substack.com/pub/eko/p/kill-switch?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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February 13, 2025 8:28am
- Grunter
  
  Add in the $100 odd billion that Zelensky has “lost”.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:45am
  - Greenheart
    
    Any proof or just your usual unsupported narrative
    
    6 13
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    February 13, 2025 9:05am
    - Grunter
      
      Google it if you like…
      
      But here’s the propaganda version of what Zelensky himself has admitted. I’ll even save you the read….
      
      “If we had $177 billion and if we get the half, where is the second half? If you find the second half, you will find corruption,” Zelensky commented in the wide-ranging three-hour interview.
      
      https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-has-received-less-than-half-of-us-assistance-allocated-during-full-scale-war-zelensky-says/
      
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      February 13, 2025 9:40am
      - Allan
        
        So Zelensky hasn’t lost it at all.
        
        It went missing before it got to Ukraine.
        
        More Grunter BS, lies, and distortion.
        
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        February 13, 2025 11:45am
  - Burtland
    
    2023 US Military Expenditure $916B
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:10am
- Grunter
  
  Also, Joe Rogan’s latest interview with former State Department official Mike Benz, an expert on cyber policy, censorship, and information warfare details how, amongst other evil leftist siht, the U.S. government is secretly funding media outlets to push narratives, destroy political opponents, and manipulate foreign policy, all under the guise of investigative journalism. The USAID programs were reportedly able to influence over 548 policy changes across foreign governments and private sectors. A significant part of this of course was Ukraine, where 90% of the MSM there received USAID funds.
  
  This is the propaganda machine at work!
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:55am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Heard the same from an ex CIA person a few years back who said they had influence in just about every newspaper room or tv news station in the world.
    Most don’t even know they are helping the CIA, many are led to believe they are just supporting issues they are sympathetic to.
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:50am
    - Paulus
      
      Us it appears via New Zealand on Air a sort of media Godfather.
      PIJF included.
      
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      February 13, 2025 3:41pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    True, except for the “leftist siht” angle.
    This program has been running for 60 years under both Republican and Democrat administrations.
    How leftist was Ronald Reagan?
    This is Deep State shit.
    
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    February 13, 2025 8:21pm
Chuck Bird

Australia made a mistake allowing so many Muslims into Australia.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/set-up-familys-huge-claim-about-sydney-nurse-caught-in-vile-antisemitic-rant/news-story/7891b8dd0a5e102609542773807292c8
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February 13, 2025 8:28am
- sirknz
  
  Of course it was a setup, they would never espouse their sincerely held beliefs to a complete stranger on the internet, especially after the last 15 months of pro-Palestine content all across social media…
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:10am
  - David Garrett
    
    Sirk: You forget that these people are fanatics…schooled from birth to hate and kill the infidel…particularly if said infidel is a Jew. And these two are clearly not smart enough to withold their real feeling and beliefs
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:24pm
- artemisia
  
  Hey, he said it was just a joke. And anyway she was baited.
  
  Looks like gone global, not a great look for Australia.
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:49am
Bridgenag

Wish we had action here……

morning in america
and an end to the demoralization of 1000 cuts

“the effects of believing that tomorrow is going to be a little bit better than today are also profound, a virtuous cycle replacing the vicious. the world turns, the sun comes out, a new day rises and our spirits and lives rise with it.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/morning-in-america?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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February 13, 2025 8:33am
Matt Long

The judges trying to block Trump’s reforms just happen to have wives who take money from USAID, or have a background in leftist Activism.
https://x.com/nataliegwinters/status/1889510504789402095
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February 13, 2025 8:43am
- Matt Long
  
  Sauron appointed judge orders Frodo to return ring of power to Sauron
  https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1889404784966320260
  
  9 1
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  February 13, 2025 9:27am
  - Matt Long
    
    In El Salvador the judges tried to keep the corruption in place and were impeached.
    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889543691947352577
    
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    February 13, 2025 9:45am
- sungsamning
  
  Color me totally unsurprised. that should disqualify the judge from having standing.
  
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  February 13, 2025 1:19pm
- Ghost
  
  Judge John McConnel Who ordered the unfreezing of billions in funding, his daughter is a policy advisor for education
  
  https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/judge-mcconnells-daughter-works-at-department-of-education-elon-musk-sparks-row/ar-AA1yQR01
  
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  February 13, 2025 1:47pm
Yvette

7:00am Kiwiblog
Collins on Public Sector
An excellent speech by new Public Services Minister Judith Collins to public sector CEOs. Some extracts:

In the six years from 2017 to 2023, the number of people employed in the core public service* grew 34 percent, to 63,117 full-time equivalent employees. Total salary costs for this core public service workforce grew a staggering 72 percent, to about $6.1 billion a year, over the same period.

Everyone is aware of ‘massive’ cuts in Public Services of whom there is “63,117 full-time equivalent employees”, but has Nationals cutbacks yet equaled Labour’s increases.
Where is the number recently cut, compared to Labours added numbers?

AI :
As of April 2024, the current New Zealand National-led Government has announced plans to cut approximately 3,534 roles in the core public service. These reductions are part of a broader initiative to achieve annual savings of $1.5 billion by decreasing spending across various departments and agencies. – NEWSTALKZB.CO.NZ

The most significant cuts include:

Ministry of Education: A proposed net loss of 565 positions, representing a 12% reduction in its workforce. 1NEWS.CO.NZ

Oranga Tamariki: Plans to eliminate 447 roles, accounting for a 9% decrease in its staff.
1NEWS.CO.NZ

Kāinga Ora: A reduction of 159 positions, with the possibility of further cuts pending an independent review.
NZHERALD.CO.NZ

These measures have been met with criticism from the Public Service Association, which describes the cuts as “savage” and “rushed,” expressing concerns about potential negative impacts on public services.
1NEWS.CO.NZ

It’s important to note that some of the roles being eliminated are currently vacant, so the actual number of individuals affected may be lower than the total number of positions cut.

National 3,534 roles cut
Labours increase was (134 percent = 63,117) so 100 percent = 47,102 before Labour started
so 63,177 – 47,102 =16,075 persons added during Labour’s Ardernity

As of April 2024, National had cut less than a quarter of Labour’s numbers added to the public services.
Even if their cuts have tripled since then, the National Coalition is only approaching Labour’s starting point …

some please check the calculation
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February 13, 2025 8:51am
- Mod88
  
  Because they are Scared to. National are talking the talk but not walking the walk and it is going to cost them. The Trend in the polls dictates people are saying we might as well have Labour, at least they were/are honest in their intentions to Bankrupt NZ Inc.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:09am
  - Yvette
    
    Mod88 – “people are saying we might as well have Labour”
    
    That is why I am disappointed that the media (“investigation journalism”, pish!) has not told us if National has yet managed to downsize the public service by even half of what Labour increased it – and have the coterie, employed at Maori Caucus behest, to duplicate everything into te reo yet gone, or were they contracted consultants, yet another area to cut?
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:22am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Roy Morgan poll shows Act down4% and losing support back to both Nats and Act.
    
    Can you tell me just one thing Seymour has delivered as a minister? The one pissing me off is the failure in his new bureaucracy ministry of regulations
    
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    February 13, 2025 2:23pm
- Damocles11
  
  Speeches and hot air, it’s all hot air for the benefit of the supporters. No action, just words, apparently sounding off is “excellent” while the public service just have a chuckle and do the opposite. I am a fan of concrete action, not utterly meaningless speechifying. National have their supporters pegged, they know that they consider words to be the same as actions. “Hey, he said he is ‘going for growth’, that’s an achievement – what more do you want??”
  
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  February 13, 2025 12:30pm
Swifty

As predictable as the sun rises in the morning Labour disavows any responsibility whatsoever for the state of New Zealand’s economy:

“As Labour’s Kieran McAnulty noted on Wednesday, the country has only been in a recession for the most recent nine months – that’s all on the coalition’s watch. The country was not in a recession under Labour.”

But of course if you takeout Labour’s reckless spending of tens and tens of billions of borrowed dollars in their final years you’ll find in fact that we had zero or negative growth for their final few years 2020-23.

Of course any monkey can borrow and spend to artificially inflate growth figures.

But what is typically deceitful for Labour is that they saw fit to blame Key and National for Labour’s poor economic performance for the entirety of their term 2017-23 (Nine years of neglect!) but now claim our sorry state just 15 months into National’s term is nothing to do with what National inherited from Labour!

If erstwhile cub reporter Glen McConnell is moving into economic analysis then he needs to learn quick smart to challenge Labour’s routine obfuscation, misleading and truth-twisting statements.

Oh and McAnulty – your total bullshitting of New Zealanders is noted. Creep.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360578052/five-figures-show-true-state-economy-and-governments-challenge

[Mod – link added]
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February 13, 2025 9:01am
- Swifty
  
  Thanks Mod!
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:50am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  We officially went into recession in the last quarter of 2023, so that starts 2 full quarters beforehand. I also noticed at Q 2 2024, they stated the economy had been in recession far longer going back 3 years, remembering of course, Labour went out of recession early in 2023 because one quarter was positive by .02 which has now been down graded, 2 days in a row McNulty has lied to NZ
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:30pm
Rusty

Why did TV One news obscure the faces of the two lowlife nurses from Sydney who said they would kill any Israeli who came to their hospital?

Sky Australia revealed them as being middle- Eastern Muslims.
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February 13, 2025 9:02am
- pdm
  
  I saw that one was a male Afghanee refugee or similar. The second sounded female but was not in the picture I saw.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:40am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Here is the segment.
  https://9gag.com/gag/aAyQNAg
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:50am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  They’re named and shown full facials on “Stuff”
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360579021/sydney-nurse-who-allegedly-threatened-israeli-patients-fled-afghanistan
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:53am
  - Bridgenag
    
    Sky.au shows their details also the family of one of the nurses screaming at a reporter
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:06am
- Tom Hunter
  
  You already know why. Which is why you shouldn’t be watching them and thus feeding their advertising money.
  
  Stop watching them so that they collapse.
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:57am
- I remember when
  
  Rusty:
  Does this item show the dangers of high number immigration, as is occuring in Europe and the UK, without careful checks and balances.
  Even a very small percentage of radicals can be very disruptive.
  While there is a tendency to compare Muslims, as a relegious group, with Christians does this stand up to rigorous investigation?
  
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  February 13, 2025 9:57am
  - imalwaysright
    
    We have had at least half a million immigrants in the last 5 years, nearly 10% of our population.
    Many are from countries other than what could be considered our usual sources.
    It would be interesting to know how many are muslims? I don’t think the Adern régime bothered asking.
    
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    February 13, 2025 10:17am
  - Rusty
    
    I remember — I agree.
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:32pm
- Inandout
  
  Rusty, one of the reasons local news is dead. Every overseas news source has their faces revealed.
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:09am
  - Rusty
    
    Inandout
    
    Right, does anyone know if Three News did the same thing hiding their faces?
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:34pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Hmmm – be fair Rusty – thought I heard a comment towards the end of the item that “they were working on checking the “veracity” of the video. Obviously they couldn’t leave that for the NSW authorities to do …….
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:20am
mw

I had a look at my new rates. North Shore in auckland, other than they went up I wanted to see how much the rubbish collection would be as I know we are the last of the areas still having to buy rubbish tags at $5.80 or $5.90 each.
The rates are $58 for the rubbish removal.. So if I want my bin collected every week it has been costing me just over $300/year while the rest of auckland has been paying $60.
Glad that complete scam on North Shore residents is just about over.
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February 13, 2025 9:43am
- Bridgenag
  
  North Shore in Sydney have 100% rate hike pending
  
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  February 13, 2025 12:41pm
- Jules99
  
  I’m in Papakura and we are in a similar situation. We have three bin sizes, and I buy the smallest tag. I put the bin out about once a month. Calculating the cost, it comes out about the same for me, but I will be putting my bin out weekly when the new system starts. No benefit in waiting until it is full. Makes me wonder if they are prepared for the extra collections, because I imagine other people will be doing the same.
  
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  February 13, 2025 1:07pm
I remember when

The Israeli versus Hamas war shows the near impossibility defeating guerilla forces using standard warfare methods.
The longer the battle goes on the greater the problem becomes.
We only have to look examples such as the Boer war, Vietnam, Kenya, South Africa, ‘human’ bombs, etc.
Despite the ‘colonialism’ tag, Europeans do not tolerate actions that result in adverse publicity.
Barbaric behaviour by the minority is often accepted as necessary, and quickly forgotten, but never by superior forces.
This allows guerilla forces to highlight and publicise even accidental incidents, while many querilla actions to not receive any publicity.
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February 13, 2025 10:14am
NK

McDonald’s cannot even get to sell Big Macs and Quarter Pounders in Wanaka, but Luxon and the Nats want international investors here as “we’re open for business”.

LOL.

Wait until said international investors have to commit to honoir te Tiriti or understand te ao Māori or display a willingness and commitment to learn them.

Or perhaps said international investors will be required to uphold te Tiriti, including the preamble and the three articles, along with following our legal system along with tikanga “laws”.

It’s so laughable that one just needs to laugh!
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February 13, 2025 10:16am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Isn’t it hilarious that if you have some extra cash but cannot speak English you can get a NZ Passport but if you’re an immigrant nurse you have to kow tow to the spiritual absurdity of te ao maori to get a job….Apparently even to get the job as a maxiofacial surgeon in Dunners you need to be more moari than the joe average maori…..now I happen to know that to become a maxifacial specialist one has to have become a dentist first and a doctor second and then specialised…..one wonders who is going to get that job let alone invest their cash in a country so clearly cooked.
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:48am
- MCōs
  
  “McDonald’s cannot even get to sell Big Macs and Quarter Pounders in Wanaka”
  How depressing is that?
  Go all the way to one of the most beautiful spots in the world and you can’t get a big fucking Mac
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:29am
  - Allan
    
    “most beautiful spots in the world”.
    
    You jest surely.
    
    I do acknowledge that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
    
    I doubt I would put the place in my top 100.
    
    8 3
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    February 13, 2025 11:53am
  - Damocles11
    
    I’m pretty sure they weren’t going to put a giant floating McDonalds on top of the lake.
    
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    February 13, 2025 12:52pm
  - kowtow
    
    Yeah but there’s a shit load of other food franchises there ,so why not ?
    
    7 0
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    February 13, 2025 12:55pm
  - trout
    
    The local owner of the McDonalds franchise at Wanaka was looking for advantage by developing a low cost site which was not zoned for commercial use and, because of the traffic issues was deemed inappropriate. There is ample vacant commercial land nearby where a takeaway could be built without objection.
    
    3 2
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    February 13, 2025 2:59pm
  - Paulus
    
    Where it was going is one huge new bare semo industruial site to be building site which many houses and facilities which will be built there shortly.
    So I will not got to Wanker again – pathetic, and they would employ and pay people, and pay taxes, and are actually a very smart training Company.
    
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    February 13, 2025 3:50pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Wanaka is not that great at all – just another overmarked tourist place.
    People who live there but don’t work there are up themselves.
    
    1 1
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    February 13, 2025 4:33pm
- Damocles11
  
  That McDonalds would have only created economic activity and jobs, and we can’t have that. All together now: “ooooeeerrrr….why are there no jobs?”
  
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  February 13, 2025 12:56pm
  - Taieri
    
    That McDonalds would have only created economic activity and jobs,
    ————
    
    Yeah, McDonalds jobs…that’s what we aspire to these days…
    
    Not that I object to McDonalds n Wanaka, because I don’t, but dramatising “lost” McDonalds’ jobs doesn’t cut the mustard either.
    
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    February 13, 2025 6:05pm
    - Damocles11
      
      The McDonalds would appear by magic? Nobody would have a job building it? No jobs in the logistics chain sending supplies to the restaurant?
      
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      February 13, 2025 7:44pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      A job is a job.
      Don’t look down your nose at work in the fast food industry. It is also real economic activity which adds real value, unlike a parasitic bureaucrat on the government payroll.
      
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      February 13, 2025 8:29pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It might pay to look into if someone on the council owns the Domino’s on the lakefront
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:32pm
Grunter

So the Nats are one of only 10 Govts in the world to set new global boiling scam targets for 2035. And one of the other 9 idiots was the USA (Biden did it before Trump pulled the pin entirely on the Paris Agreement). So, now down to NZ & 8 other idiots…..

The silly Simon (Watts) has fallen for the scam alongside global giants such as Andora. It is so embarrassing to listen to our woke ‘leaders’ spew out the BS on climate change. Isn’t it reassuring that we are “…..doing our fair share!”

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/11/most-countries-miss-un-deadline-for-new-climate-targets/
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February 13, 2025 10:39am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They never set the frame work, they did push the date back, this was signed 15 years ago
  
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  February 13, 2025 2:33pm
  - Grunter
    
    Your love affair is beyond believable……. So you agree with handing over $50 billion to some crappy global carbon credit scam?
    
    2 0
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    February 13, 2025 4:07pm
Ghost

This will be an interesting hearing.

The JFK assassination involved two shooters, a sensational update from a Donald Trump backed-inquiry boss has claimed. Anna Paulina Luna, the President’s new head of a congressional task force looking at exposing “federal secrets”, said she believes there were “two shooters” in the killing of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Article
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February 13, 2025 10:47am
- Grunter
  
  Anna is a force to be reckoned with. She will expose a whole stack of stuff that everyone thought was “just a conspiracy theory”. Some of it, like the JFK files, will simply confirm what most have already outlined. But some of the other files, like the 911 truth will be stunning IMO.
  
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  February 13, 2025 10:57am
  - MCōs
    
    These are all just curtain raisers to the main event
    Obama was born in Kenya
    Once that’s proven Trump’s mission here on earth will be complete and he’ll ascend into heaven
    
    5 11
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    February 13, 2025 11:37am
  - Allan
    
    What 911 truth?
    
    3 3
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    February 13, 2025 11:54am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Steel high rise buildings don’t disintegrate because they are on fire.
      
      All three buildings were intentionally demolished.
      
      2 7
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      February 13, 2025 1:42pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        It’s true, I heard it on CNN!!
        
        3 1
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        February 13, 2025 4:35pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Physics, metallurgy and mathematics.
        
        2 0
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        February 13, 2025 6:08pm
  - NK
    
    And the Epstein client lists.
    
    7 1
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    February 13, 2025 1:49pm
    - Paulus
      
      Remember if Epstein’s girl friend, still in jail, were to like him “commit suicide” then her Black Book will been released, despite a New York High Court Judge banning it.
      (For a political price of course)
      Sure it is with her Lawyers and others.
      
      3 1
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      February 13, 2025 3:54pm
- sungsamning
  
  Good to see this stuff coming out. They should sit on half of the Epstein client list, and drip feed it during the mid-terms.
  
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  February 13, 2025 1:25pm
- Jake Dee
  
  I’ve looked at this and that news article is yet another gross distortion.
  Did you notice that the quote of Anna Paulina Luna regarding “two shooters” is not a full sentence with the time and context noted?
  Without that stated explicitly it’s useless if not downright misleading.
  Oswald shot Kennedy and then he shot officer Tippet and was in turn shot by Ruby.
  That’s two individual shooters and three fatal shootings right there.
  
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  February 13, 2025 8:40pm
cmm

Nicola Willis is giving the Evil Eye to everyone’s favourite enemy: the supermarkets.

“We need more competition”. Need is a strong word. We really have insufficient population too far away to attract competition.

It is exactly the same as the reason Darfield only has a 4 squares and does not have a Pak N Save, Countdown etc etc – it is too small. It has a completely different structure to Auckland.

When you zoom out further then exact same reasons apply as to why NZ with a sparse, tiny population has less competition than Australia and Europe.

We can “need” competition all we want, but how do you attract it? Where is the motivation for Aldi etc to come to NZ? There needs to be profitability and there really is insufficient population to support that with low prices.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360579710/nicola-willis-sets-sights-supermarkets
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February 13, 2025 11:01am
- MCōs
  
  You know a government is feeling the heat when they start bashing the supermarkets
  
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  February 13, 2025 11:42am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Oh, just like the last government did!
    
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    February 13, 2025 11:53am
  - kowtow
    
    And banks.
    
    10 0
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    February 13, 2025 11:55am
  - Jack5
    
    Politicians are bullshitting about supermarkets, or their Parliament staff don’t do their homework, or both.
    
    A third chain?
    
    Look at one of the two chains (the other comprises two groups of co-operatives). Woolworths New Zealand, the branch of Australian Woolworths that took over Countdown, in its latest financial year wrote down the value of its supermarket chain by $NZ1.16 billion.
    
    This followed an accounting “impairment test”. It identified the carrying value of Woolworths’ New Zealand Group exceeded its recoverable amount by $1.613 million.
    
    The Aussie owners would probably welcome a chance to sell the chain to one of the fabled new entrants politicians reckon are breathless to invest in NZ.
    
    As posters here point out, the big problem is geography and the cost this means for distribution.
    
    First, the whole country is isolated. This affects the many foreign goods we consume
    
    Second it’s a challenge for internal transport. We’re an archipelago, with two main islands separated by an apparently unbridgeable strait; the shape of the country is long and thin (circular would be great for transport); apart from the northern third of the North Island, the population – supermarket customers – are spread widely; the often mountainous terrain is difficult for road and rail buildings; in all this we are prone to earthquake damage.
    
    Expensive supermarket food is something we have to accept – like the people of Alaska, of Hawaii, Alice Springs, or Darwin.
    
    One mildly bright spot. Distribution problems should help small, local food producers.
    
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    February 13, 2025 1:12pm
    - Jack5
      
      Clarifying the Woolworths write-off:
      
      The impairment loss was $NZ1.613 billion. The loss for the year, which I didn’t mention, was $1.673 billion.
      
      Sorry, I ran out of edit time.
      
      Of further interest. The gross margin, or difference between sales and cost of sales was 22.4 per cent.
      
      6 0
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      February 13, 2025 2:00pm
    - Ghost
      
      I wonder what happened to the iwi owned supermarket
      
      https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/business/350085825/iwi-planning-new-supermarket-chain-20-30-stores-challenge-duopoly
      
      5 0
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      February 13, 2025 2:03pm
      - cmm
        
        Probably not enough hand outs to make it “sustainable”.
        
        4 0
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        February 13, 2025 3:17pm
      - artemisia
        
        Have not heard a peep from Waikato Tainui about the new supermarket chain, but believe they did get a taxpayer loan of nearly $3mill in 2023 to “enable the Māori economy and food and beverage industry”.
        
        How’s that going? Any loan repayments yet?
        
        8 0
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        February 13, 2025 3:40pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        I bet no one would walk out without paying.
        
        0 0
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        February 13, 2025 4:01pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rubbish, apparently there is an announcement coming of a third large scale provider, so no, the only party feeling the heat is Act who plummeted 4% in the Morgan poll out
    
    0 9
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    February 13, 2025 2:43pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  The UK’s largest market share supermarket chain is Tescos, and they have a 28.5% share of the market. We do not have a big enough population in NZ for the number of players they have.
  
  12 0
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  February 13, 2025 11:54am
- artemisia
  
  It was reported a while back that My Food Bag was #3 in terms of food sold. They have several competitors and between them probably cover pretty much the whole country, delivery to the door.
  
  No travelling to the nearest store needed.
  
  Sounds like competition, doesn’t it? Maybe not for toilet paper or dishwasher tablets. But even they are available in a whole lot more places than just supermarkets. (PS 100 packs of dishwasher tabs from Bunnings $20. Compare with your local supermarket. Sound like competition?)
  
  8 1
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  February 13, 2025 12:41pm
- Bridgenag
  
  We need a Made in NZ supermarket.
  
  0 7
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  February 13, 2025 12:49pm
  - MCōs
    
    So no banana, rice, two minute noodles, durian . . .
    
    3 0
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    February 13, 2025 1:55pm
  - Allan
    
    Kiwirail, Kiwibuild, Kiwibank, Kiwikai.
    
    No, just fucking no.
    
    2 0
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    February 13, 2025 5:46pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They agreed with questions today, there is a large scale provider interested in becoming a third large scale competitor.
  
  Apparently today there is an announcement about the India trade deal.
  
  I also notice on Tuesday the PM mentioned in a question that one of those mills in NI has now not closed, but did the media cover any of this ? Nope
  
  2 3
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  February 13, 2025 2:40pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Have to wonder what is behind the diversion. What else is happening that we don’t know about yet?
  
  3 1
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  February 13, 2025 3:08pm
- cmm
  
  It is actually quite surprising that we get as much variety and competition as we do get in NZ.
  
  Have a look at low volume products like toothpaste or menstrual hygiene products or band aids or such. The usage of such items is very low and yet we get all sorts of options.
  
  Let’s assume that the average family goes through a box of band aids (or generic equivalent) every 2 years (it is probably much less often). That is less than 1 million boxes sold in NZ every year. Pak and Save shows 15 different offerings. Most (lets say 50% of them) will likely be the cheaper offerings of less than $3 per box split between two or three brands.
  
  That’s 500,000 boxes of generic band aids a year retailing for $3. Let’s be generous and say that wholesale on those is $1.50 each. ie. $750k a year, ie. around $2000 a day. That’s split beween 3 brands, so around $700 per day each.
  
  Let’s say the raw import cost to land the product in NZ is 50 cents a box. That leaves $1 per box (ie. around $500 a day each)
  
  That $500 a day is $65 an hour and has to pay:
  * Warehousing and logistical staff ordering products and arranging importers and driving fork lifts around.
  * Sales reps.
  * Cost of warehouse hire, forklift hire, insurance electriity,…
  * Trucks and driver to transport the goods to and from the warehouse and distribute them all over the country.
  * Advertising costs.
  * And still leave some profits for the operator.
  
  How the hell you feed all those people and operate all those expenses of $65 an hour I don’t know. Sure, they will be handling multiple products, but still keeping that going must be a nightmare.
  
  That was for the high volume product. Imagine how hard it is for the low volume products.
  
  Rinse and repeat for 67 varieties of toothpaste and 22 different kinds of tampons.
  
  I am really surprised that we get both the range of products we do and the prices we get.
  
  The only real way to cut costs would be to significantly reduce the ranges of products available to drive up per-product volume: three different toothpastes – not 67. Then people would complain they don’t get the choices they have in Australia.
  
  5 1
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  February 13, 2025 3:49pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Lefties trying to comprehend the numbers you have given will now be headed for a bottle of craft beer to have a shandy with zero lite!!
    
    2 1
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    February 13, 2025 4:40pm
- Paulus
  
  Thought there is a new Giant Supermarkei in West Auckland who are going to sweep the market when they started a year or so ago.
  
  2 2
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  February 13, 2025 3:56pm
  - MCōs
    
    That would be Costco, which requires a subscription I believe and is 25km from our house
    That’s a lot of cheap wheetbix to make that worthwhile
    
    2 0
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    February 13, 2025 7:46pm
Sparrow

Just heard on headline news that an MP has put forward a motion to cancel the TPB discussion. Missed who it was presumably an opposition MP. Lets end this farce we all know the outcome. There is no worth in continuing it, politicians and most of the public have entrenched views which won’t be changed by dragging out this talkfest. End it now. I see a public opinion poll of Seymours push for privatisation got a luke warm reception less that 50% agreed with it.
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February 13, 2025 11:40am
- artemisia
  
  I think it was Hekia Parata. Former National Minister.
  
  7 1
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  February 13, 2025 1:15pm
  - mandk
    
    She hasn’t been an MP since 2017.
    
    5 0
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    February 13, 2025 1:35pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    She is not a MP
    
    2 1
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    February 13, 2025 2:44pm
  - Ghost
    
    She did not. You can watch her first up
    
    https://vimeo.com/showcase/10758261/video/1055087346
    
    Also she is a citizen, not an mp, she cannot put forward a motion.
    
    4 1
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    February 13, 2025 3:08pm
    - Sparrow
      
      I must have missed that it was an ex MP on the earlier radio news. She is calling for the review committee to send the bill back to parliament. To put it in my blunt terms and not hers its a load of divisive crap, Luxon needs to have the balls to call it a day. Frankly he is showing his lack of leadership and Seymour is exploiting it. Many thanks for the earlier one uptick.
      
      1 0
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      February 13, 2025 6:02pm
MCōs

I’ve always thought it looked a bit awkward when politicians put tee shirts with messages on top of their shirt and tie, but the PM must have been totally preoccupied to pull one over his suit jacket
6 2
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February 13, 2025 11:49am
- imalwaysright
  
  He can’t help himself …
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-draws-the-attention-of-famous-menswear-commentator-derek-guy/HYI6QJB3Q5EJVF6ARCYREHWNFI/
  
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  February 13, 2025 3:04pm
Ross Bayer

It is with a huge sense of pride that I have just viewed a proud KIWI in the Oval office of the Whitehouse supporting his wife being sworn in as the DNI for the Trump administration.

Tulsi Gabbard is starting on her journey of helping save us all from a corrupt intelligence community that has started so many wars around the globe, I woman of character and moral fiber that I admire.
This is a turning point in history
14 1
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February 13, 2025 12:08pm
- Don Beckett
  
  So who is this proud KIWI ?
  
  5 2
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  February 13, 2025 12:41pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    This is just a guess, but I’d say it’s Tulsi Gabbard’s husband?
    
    6 0
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    February 13, 2025 1:21pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Her husband, I guess.
    
    4 0
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    February 13, 2025 1:28pm
  - Ross Bayer
    
    Tulsi Gabbards husband a kiwi seems to have been missed by everyone when was the last time a new zealander shook the hand of the POTUS?
    
    6 1
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    February 13, 2025 1:30pm
    - Allan
      
      Wrong president!
      
      Now if it had been Biden, Obama, or Clinton ….
      
      2 0
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      February 13, 2025 5:49pm
  - Ghost
    
    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4812188/
    
    3 1
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    February 13, 2025 1:40pm
    - MCōs
      
      Apparently born in Otahuhu with Māori & Samoan lineage, but described by this source as an ethnic white Kiwi.
      Never heard of a brown ethnic white Kiwi before
      
      https://www.legit.ng/1301621-abraham-williams-bio-ethnicity-wife-career.html
      
      6 0
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      February 13, 2025 2:57pm
      - Paulus
        
        Is it only in Rugby that a Samoan born mother with a Maori father or v.v. can be become an All Black and an International for Samoa ?
        Where does being say an All Black stop as there are no Maori, but can still be a Samoan International ?
        
        3 1
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        February 13, 2025 3:59pm
- sungsamning
  
  Yes, I’m glad she has been confirmed. She can do the job, and brings a portion of the Democratic party with her.
  
  4 1
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  February 13, 2025 1:28pm
Bridgenag

DOGE due diligence at treasury
“adventures in hide the ball” and other fun lawfare
Vido must watch…

“did you know that since 1946 no president nor any of his appointed staff of secretaries up to and including the treasury secretary has had access to the US government’s payment system?
none. nada. zilch. it’s one big opaque black box to which the executive branches executives have been barred.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/doge-due-diligence-at-treasury?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
5 1
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February 13, 2025 1:11pm
peterwn

Q3 Hon CARMEL SEPULONI to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his Government’s statements and actions?
How dumb can MP’s get? It is common knowledge that the PM is generally not in the House on Thursdays. Or is it they want a joust with Winston. A MP asked the PM a question a few Thursdays ago then questioned Winston’s capability to answer the question (I think it was a similar open question with the sting in the supplementary).
8 1
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February 13, 2025 2:02pm
- Inandout
  
  peter, a Member must not make reference to vacant seats across the floor so maybe this is a dumb way of asking his whereabouts.
  
  6 1
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  February 13, 2025 2:32pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She was shocking today
  
  4 2
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  February 13, 2025 2:47pm
- MCōs
  
  That’s a stock standard question asked by opposition MPs in our parliament for as long as I can remember with the purpose being the minister is not prepared for the follow up questions
  Whether or not the actual minister is present is not the questioner’s responsibility
  
  5 0
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  February 13, 2025 3:27pm
  - peterwn
    
    And I found it refreshing when a Minister declined to answer such a supplementary because he did not have the info at his fingertips. I think Ministers take it as a point of pride to answer such supplementaries as best as possible preferably knocking a six off the original question.
    
    2 0
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    February 13, 2025 5:21pm
Damocles11

Wow, National MP Joseph Mooney caught out bagging his Coalition partner ACT by text message….to Labour. It’s worse than we feared, Labour Lite and Labour are on the same side it seems.

‘“It’s funny that Act never defend their policies in hearings – never ask questions,” he sent to Labour’s deputy leader, Carmel Sepuloni.’

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360580109/whoopsie-accidental-text-gives-insight-coalition-relationship
10 0
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February 13, 2025 3:08pm
- Ghost
  
  Or is deception worse? Why do you not actually tell the truth since you’ve read the article. He sent the message to the wrong person, realised his mistake and unsent it.
  
  Is he wrong with what he said?
  
  4 4
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  February 13, 2025 3:39pm
  - Damocles11
    
    So he has Sepuloni’s mobile in his phone?
    Why?
    And why was he bagging ACT to anyone?
    
    1 0
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    February 13, 2025 7:48pm
    - Ghost
      
      Why wouldn’t he have her number. They are both on the same select committee together, he’s the chairperson of that select committee.
      
      He thought he sent to another national mp a comment about act members not supporting their policy in committee, big deal. It’s a nothing except to people who want to make it something. Do you think act and nz MP’s dont send messages like that to each other
      
      0 0
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      February 13, 2025 8:23pm
- cmm
  
  As I have said often, politics is as fake as professional wrestling.
  
  They grrr at eachother in front of the voters, then join eachother for a beer afterwards.
  
  Big Gerry and GG having a cozy cup of coffee are not a once-off.
  
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  February 13, 2025 3:54pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Julian Batchelor Treaty Principles Bill Oral Submission With Extras.

The naysayers will mention the 5 and 10 minute restrictions. Did you miss the “Extras” bit?
Anyway, it is about time the truth about successive Governments since 1975 have just accepted the current version of the Treaty written by James Freeman, which is wrong. The original was written by James Busby and William Hobson – translated into Maori by Henry Williams. It is now more commonly known as the “Littlewood Draft.”

Video 16 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEd4U978rwo
5 2
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February 13, 2025 3:19pm
surfing

https://www.nib.co.nz/ngatiwhatuaorakei

Free medical/dental etc for Maori.

Who pays for this, I wonder. Maybe it is the ‘tribal trust’, but, where does their funding come from?

I’ve come across these benefits recently. Know of situations that would make people scream but I couldn’t say in public.
4 0
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February 13, 2025 3:42pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360580436/dead-sea-turtle-washes-auckland-beach
Shit. Another $100,000 funeral coming up.
9 0
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February 13, 2025 4:30pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Don’t forget the $1000 for kai.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/541305/ministry-of-social-development-found-wrong-to-refuse-1026-payment-grant-for-tangi-food
  
  2 0
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  February 13, 2025 9:15pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360579841/five-russians-went-out-drinking-when-they-got-back-australia-had-struck
What a great story ! Would make quite a good movie.
5 0
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February 13, 2025 4:35pm
sirknz

Weird. We get a full description of the offender (not alleged), when, where, what they were doing and what they were driving.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-girl-followed-by-naked-man-in-van-near-royal-oak-police-investigating/BWRLQAY5YVEUJLZUIG243ON6E4/
4 0
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February 13, 2025 4:49pm
- sirknz
  
  Contrast it with this one.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360580808/man-who-allegedly-pointed-gun-police-palmerston-north-still-run
  
  No description of the ‘alleged’ person of interest or the vehicle.
  
  4 0
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  February 13, 2025 8:12pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Well I have an email from Hobson’s Pledge (Don Brash) about “controversial” front page advertisement regarding the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill.”
Who is this ASA made up of? (Advertising Standards Authority.)
Sorry mods but this is not on the Hobson’s Pledge website. No link sorry.

“It was worth a try, but the Advertising Standards Authority has rejected our appeal on the ruling against our “controversial” front page advertisement regarding the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill.

Given the ideological capture of institutions in New Zealand, it is hardly surprising that the appeal board of the ASA came to almost the same conclusions as the initial ruling. In these institutions there is visceral hatred, revulsion, and fear of anything that disrupts the current narrative around the Treaty and Māori special rights.

Our front page advertisement definitely disrupted the narrative. It showed New Zealanders just how much of the New Zealand coast is under current application by iwi. In case you don’t remember, it is virtually the entire coast.

We maintain that our advertisement was factual and did not breach standards.

This ASA decision tells the media decision-makers who want to refuse to run our advertisements that they are entitled to block ordinary people seeing reflections of their own concerns and reasoning in the media.

The class now ruling the mainstream media find ways to stretch and manipulate any rules. Or they just make them up, or ignore the inconvenient ones, including rights to freedom of speech and non-discrimination on the grounds of political belief, or race.

Anything that conflicts with the dogma of the professional-managerial-academic-political-entertainment elite is likely to be blocked, ridiculed, or accused of misinformation. These elites feel virtuous censoring out anything they feel or think the masses should not believe.

We’ll never get good faith engagement from our opponents, and we accept this sad reality. Totally spurious reasoning is par for the course in decisions from the lanyard-wearing class.

What we don’t accept is that we should be content to allow this unfairness to continue unopposed.

It is long past time for a law change to extend the Commerce Act, so that the powerful who control dominant media will be liable, just as cartel conspirators are, if they use their dominance to suppress competition in the marketplace of ideas.

We’d be glad to debate the truth and fairness of our communications with anyone, but that is not what the ASA want to allow. They want to silence us. They want to suppress our views and by extension yours.

The ASA grounded their decisions – the first and the appeal – in opinion rather than objective fact. Facts are still facts, even when they are inconvenient to the beliefs of the members of the ASA.”

Don Brash
Trustee
Hobson’s Pledge
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February 13, 2025 5:05pm
Steve Otto N Shore

[Please try to leave that juvenile stuff where it belongs – facebook. mod.]
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February 13, 2025 6:26pm
Sparrow

Oh dear poor David Seymour is not having a good week. It seems that very dubious UK company Compass got paid a bonus to supply school meals. Why were they paid a bonus ? Surely not some sort of backhander to increase the return to them. The Minister confirmed in writing that Due Diligence had been carried out on this dubious Company.
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February 13, 2025 6:56pm

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