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March 11, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 11 March 2025

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Cassandra

Ex Labour MP Phil Goff got the appropriate result from his thoughtless question at Chatham House, based on a speech by Winston Churchill. He now has the opportunity to seek a real job or to improve his golf handicap. This is a more relevant extract from Churchill’s speech:
“I will, therefore, begin by saying the most unpopular and most unwelcome thing. I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely, that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and that France has suffered even more than we have. And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.” They are, as you might expect, wonderful words, as relevant today as they were in 1938. The situation the world, and New Zealand, faces cannot be underestimated. We are on the verge of two world crises, three for NZ: first is the prospect of war (it’s arrived n Europe and Africa and not far away for us), second is the economy, with much of the world insolvent and facing huge defence costs. We have a real crisis elsewhere has only in part and that is our seemingly inexorable slide to an ethno state. Let’s do something about all three. Labour’s new, refreshing team is just the answer. Wait, isn’t that the old team? No, it’s not – it now includes former teacher Tangi Utikere and Willow Jean Prime who lost her electorate in the last election. Apart from them the new team is the old team. How refreshing.
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March 11, 2025 8:01am
- igm
  
  Labour, still a line-up of unemployables, failures, and leeches.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:07am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  What a farcical state they are in if Willow Jean Prime is the answer for Labour in education, oh I am do waiting to hear her question the minister with her bro accent today
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:17am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    I shuddered when I heard that announcement. Willow Jean’s main claim to fame is … breast-feeding in parliament?
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:44am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Yes, and remember her telling Obama when he was here and out of politics and had a walk about with Key, she was the fool that told Obama oh oh we have period poverty. what a total fool and an embarrassment
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:37am
- kowtow
  
  Talking Churchill , politics and war …….
  
  Churchill ,for political considerations, wanted to essentially leave Britain defenceless by continuing to send more fighter squadrons to France , to keep Jean Crappard in it .
  
  Dowding , resisted . The RAF were already desperately undersized , never mind their loses in France.
  
  And for all the politicians bluster over Ukraine ( particularly the Tories ) the RAF is again on a very sticky wicket .
  
  This time due to DEI.
  
  Unbelievable , to the extent of treachery , in effect if not intent.
  
  ‘RAF bosses have launched a desperate search for pilots after a secret bid to discriminate against white male applicants backfired.
  
  Candidates previously overlooked are now being urged to re-apply for training as the Air Force frantically tries to fill cockpits with combat-ready flyers, the Mail can reveal.’
  
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14479613/raf-pilots-diversity-keir-starmers-pledge-Ukraine.html
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:38am
  - David Garrett
    
    kowtow: What a courageous woman that head of recruitment is! I’m pretty sure she would have got where she is my ability, and not her gender.
    
    I also note that the Daily Mail has the same level of sloppiness as Stuff, at least judging by that story: Several obvious grammatical and tense errors.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:59am
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      “…where she is my ability…”
      
      An unfortunate slip before a sentence chiding others for sloppiness.
      
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      March 11, 2025 11:49am
- kiwimike
  
  With Hipkins still the useless Liar he was.
  
  Is a woman an adult female yet. ?
  
  Did we all willingly take the jab or were we coerced ?
  
  REM He still failed at 4 Ministerial Jobs before PM !!
  
  Will old Labour continue the Maori Aparthied through Health and Water and Foreshore and Seabed ?
  
  Emasculating 83% of the population (one man one vote) through Maori Co-Governance ?
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:08am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, Chippy’s pledge to focus on “jobs, health and homes” rings hollow. Labour will need TMP to form a government, and it will be full steam ahead with the ethnostate agenda.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:46am
    - igm
      
      Will be worse case than Rhodesaia within months. China will walk in for nothing.
      No benefits, only hard work and no play to survive.
      Interesting times ahead!
      
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      March 11, 2025 7:31pm
  - Bloody Dago
    
    Maybe the idiots that support the Marxists in this country should catch the next canoe out to Cuba. Here’s what we could be according to a travel blog:
    https://www.spendlifetraveling.com/living-in-cuba/#:~:text=Cuba%20is%20a%20beautiful%20island
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:52am
- Simon
  
  Frees up Goff to go serve in some capacity in the Ukraine. Which he won’t. Spitting at returning NZ soldiers is more his level. That is who you lot are on the same sides with?
  
  Goff is some sort of morality with kiwi blog readers?
  
  Take a step back. None of these political types will ever serve in the Ukraine. They will spit at you though. Always been the way.
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:03am
  - igm
    
    Goff should never have been allowed into Parliament, nor Mayoralty, after his filthy behaviour toward returning servicemen . . . what a crud.
    By the way, his contemporary Clark, was nearly as bad.
    
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    March 11, 2025 7:36pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  “seek a real job.” Who wants him? He is unemployable.
  Been on the public tit all of his life, except for a stint at the freezing works.
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:08am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Michael Laws was in Parliament with him. He said Goff believes he is always the smartest person in the room.
    Unfortunately for Goff, the room he was in had a camera and a microphone and Winston Peters thought differently …
    
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    March 11, 2025 1:13pm
    - John Loveridge
      
      Given he saw fit to make that speech, I’d question his credentials to be the smartest guy in any room. Even in a room by himself.
      
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      March 11, 2025 6:29pm
- Philview
  
  With the strong possibility of a Labour/Greens/TPM Government next year Goff will no doubt soon be back in a plum job. Perhaps the US Ambassador. I recall his nephew was killed fighting for the US Army in Afghanistan so you would think he would be more aligned with Trump’s peace plan but obviously not.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:15am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Chris Luxon is off to India on a trade mission. Previously, it’s been suggested that India will insist on NZ accepting Indian migrants as their price for agreeing to include dairy products in any trade deal.

Just no, Chris. We absolutely should not be giving away control over our borders in order to sell more cheese.

https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/127186/new-zealand-faces-potential-immigration-tradeoff-if-free-trade-agreement-india
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March 11, 2025 8:02am
- Paulus
  
  FTA with Indian will not happen !
  Has been discussed for years with the same answer – Cows !
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:49am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not necessarily, the president told them to keep coming, sticking point is dairy as many people have very small dairy outfits and they do not want to interfere with that trade, it maybe we can sign leaving dairy out unless the country needs it over and above their own farmers on a case by case basis, red meat would be great into India, and wool has really taken off into India while China was absent from the market
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:41am
  - goNZ1
    
    yeah,waste of time, the Indians will talk,and talk,and talk and barter and NZ will get zilch. The only thing thing they will probably come home with is the dreaded Dehli Belly
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:49am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Yep, the Indians will suck the fat out of a chip before they sell it to you.
      
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      March 11, 2025 1:16pm
- sirknz
  
  But think of the short term upswing in total GDP (ignore the average GDP), and the breathless media who will get to write about another evil NZ business owner with a surname like ‘Singh’ or ‘Sharma’ exploiting poor, hapless migrants, nor will they get to write about evil landlords with surnames like ‘Ram’ or ‘Patel’ having poor migrants living in terrible conditions like homes with only 2 bathrooms and 1 off street carpark.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:59am
- muzled
  
  Speaking of interest.co, they recently changed to a paywall comment section.
  
  I’d love to know how much traffic they’ve lost but I’d suggest it’s substantial given the comments on stories like housing have dropped from well over 100+ to 10-30’ish and sometimes closer to 10 than 30
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:08pm
- Damocles11
  
  Luxon wants an excuse to open the borders, it’ll be a shrug of the shoulders and “we have to do it – it’s in the Free Trade Agreement”. NZ is stuffed, National are so desperate to revive the ‘Rock Star Economy’ that this is what they will resort: mass immigration of Indians to try to pump the property ponzi scheme + GDP numbers. And we will be stuck with all the adverse effects that result from many more people adding additional strain to our existing infrastructure and resources, a limited productive sector carrying an expanding urban population on its back.
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:24pm
- surfing
  
  Indian migrants already run the back room IT operations of all large corporates.
  
  Without them, our banks, insurance companies, etc, would all fail.
  
  They’ve bought wages down for sure, software engineers are the new dairy owners haha.
  
  The ones I’ve met are mostly nice people, but I wonder if more kiwis should be training up in IT. The problem with IT is that it is a young persons game. Other professions tend to get easier as you age.
  
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  March 11, 2025 5:46pm
- John Loveridge
  
  Don’t we already let in enough Indians to merit at least a small trade deal?
  
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  March 11, 2025 6:29pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes, we’ll soon be known as Southern Indiana. 🙂
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:52pm
Scott

I’ve been very impressed with Simeon Brown who is now doing some excellent work in the beleaguered health sector.

Health has a $16B increase in funding over the next 3 years. Brown has announced the following initiatives:

“First, we will support 100 internationally trained doctors to become registered to work in New Zealand’s primary care system. Right now, we have overseas-trained doctors already living here who want to work but face barriers to registration. We’re funding a new two-year training programme to fast-track them into our primary care workforce.

Second, we will fund and incentivise general practices to hire up to 400 graduate nurses. To encourage recruitment, we will offer payments of up to $15,000 for urban practices and $20,000 for rural practices.

Third, we will launch a new 24/7 digital healthcare service, giving all New Zealanders access to video consultations with registered GPs and nurse practitioners. This will provide flexibility for patients, ensuring they can receive medical advice, prescriptions, and test orders from anywhere at any time.

Fourth, we are committing $285 million over three years in performance-based funding for general practice, starting in July 2025. This funding will reward practices that open their books to new patients, achieve key health targets like immunisation rates, and deliver timely care.

Fifth, we are reducing the bowel cancer screening age to align with Australia and have announced the first step in doing so by dropping the screening age from 60 to 58, giving 122,000 Kiwis access to life-saving early detection. This aims to prevent a projected 771 additional bowel cancers and 566 bowel cancer deaths over the next 25 years.

Finally, we have announced a plan to partner with the private sector to clear the elective surgery backlog. Wait times have blown out, and the current approach of outsourcing means we’re paying a premium. By partnering with the private sector, we can ensure we get better value for money through long-term contracts while delivering the care that Kiwis deserve. Health New Zealand will invest $50 million between now and the end of June to deliver an extra 10,579 procedures to help clear our backlog.”

These appear to be very sensible moves to revive the health sector struggling after 6 years of hopeless ideology from the previous government. We can only wish Simeon Brown well as he aims to get our health sector delivering for all New Zealanders.
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March 11, 2025 8:03am
- Paulus
  
  Overseas Medical staff
  Bet they will be stopped from Registration as they cannot understand Te Maori well enough, and the Unions will hold them back for their current more money first.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:52am
  - Dougal10
    
    What would happen if we let these overseas trained doctors start working on white people straight away and after 2 years of te maori courses they can then treat people with some maori in them.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:16am
    - OlderChas
      
      Does anyone know if Maori student doctors have to complete the Maori wonderfulness and Differences training?
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:48pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Some of those Maori are whiter than I am.
      
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      March 11, 2025 1:22pm
      - surfing
        
        My upper middle class cousins kids are white with a smattering of islander. Enough to qualify them to leap ahead of people with merit for med school.
        
        White Māori should be excluded, as they seem to have white Māori advantage.
        
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        March 11, 2025 5:48pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Simeon Brown could well be the future leader of the National party. Maybe not the next leader, but the one after?
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:15am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Definitely, will be a leader, and may well be the next one if a strategic change is required, most people accept he is very good
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:43am
- Phronesis
  
  I see RNZ had the head of the salaried medical specialists union on this morning to discuss the private sector clearing the elective surgery backlog.
  
  Strangely she wasn’t a fan. Perhaps because her job as a Union boss is to represent hospital doctors employed by the government. If more doctors work in the private sector she loses the union dues. Not a hint of a conflict of interest from RNZ, who to be fair probably don’t know what a conflict of interest is.
  
  Always amuses me that a surgeon running their own business and getting paid to perform procedures by the government is wrong. But a GP running their own business and getting paid by the government is entirely normal. But then the union doesn’t represent GP’s.
  
  Part of the problem with recruiting surgeons into Public jobs is that the union refuses to acknowledge that surgeons normally earn around twice that of the average specialist doctor. They have negotiated a flat rate contract across a workforce with wildly different earning ability and refuse to acknowledge this.
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:47am
  - kiwimike
    
    I know many hospital doctors have both DHB and private
    
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    March 11, 2025 1:43pm
    - Phronesis
      
      Indeed. in some specialties almost all hospital doctors do private work. Not many of them are members of the union though. Why would you pay for the union to actively campaign against your own private practice.
      
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      March 11, 2025 4:16pm
- Philview
  
  I read an article the other day saying he should be the new National Party leader and PM. A very young PM at that. He has already shown he isn’t frightened of journalists which is refreshing.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:20am
- PurplePen
  
  We were looking to get a vax shot necessary for where we’re travelling later in the year. It’s not provided by our GP, but by some other GP centres. The others require you to have a consult with the GP trained in this particular vax. The cost, just for the consult is 2 x $125 as there’s two of us. Even if we attend simultaneously. Seems a rort to me.
  
  The above got me thinking about the $125 fee for a 15 minute consult. My calcs say that comes to more than $900k a year, assuming no holidays. If the GP pays themselves about $250k (From Seek) what happens to the other $650k. Sure, there’s staff to pay and some equipment and the residential property. But there are typically 4 to 8 GPs in any practice. One GP’s revenue surplus would pay for the staff easily.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:30am
  - Jules99
    
    Might be the cost of the vax too. If it’s not subsidised it can cost a lot. Last time my doggo had a vax it was $90.
    
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    March 11, 2025 3:01pm
    - PurplePen
      
      Cost of vax was another $140. I don’t mind the cost of the drug. It’s the hourly GP rate which is $500 and that for this type of service you can’t both see them at the same time. Also remember, GPs get an additional sum of taxpayer funds for every patient that they have on their books, separate from their fee to see each patient.
      
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      March 12, 2025 4:25pm
  - Phronesis
    
    It’s a consequence of the way GP’s are funded and what they are and aren’t allowed to charge fees for. Such consults are a known money maker, GP’s have plenty of consults that they are losing money on.
    
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    March 11, 2025 4:20pm
- thirteenstars
  
  “Finally, we have announced a plan to partner with the private sector to clear the elective surgery backlog. ”
  
  That’s a good one and it goes way further than what currently happens. Expect to see private surgical clinics open specifically handling referrals from the public system, which is exactly how the public system should transition away from public provision of services leaving it free to be a public funder of services.
  
  And wouldn’t it be interesting if the Minister of Education had likewise said, “We have announced a plan to partner with the private sector to address the falling standards in education.”
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:30am
- James Stephenson
  
  Yes but maybe it wasn’t actually that hard? Reti was obviously too soft, but really all Brown needed to do was copy exactly what Tony Ryall did a decade and a half ago.
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:09pm
- Keith White
  
  How about letting NZ doctors who were forced out of practice by the WuPox “regulations” and mandates, work again?
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:09pm
artemisia

Bowel cancer screening changes ‘driven by ideology, not facts’ So there are facts but what exactly are they, and more numbers would be useful so projected outcomes can be compared. Otherwise, cynical observers might see certain harsh criticism as self serving.

Sir Collin Tukuitonga, co-director of the Centre for Pacific and Global Health at Auckland University – Here is one time where we actually have good data to show that Maori and Pasifika people are at risk of bowel cancer at an earlier age.

Otago University research fellow and lecturer Dr Viliami Puloka – It is a matter of fact genetics is important. Social environment is important. There are a lot of social determinants of health … but ethnicity definitely is a major factor.

Bowel Cancer New Zealand board member Rachel Afeaki – Pasifika people face a 63 percent higher mortality rate from bowel cancer than non-Māori non-Pacific people That appears to be a significant number, but how many people are included in that 63%, and are there other reasons than ethnicity. Dr Puloka says there are.)

Simeon Brown, Minister of Health – Bowel cancer risk is similar across all population groups at the same age Projected additional lives saved numbers were provided.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/544368/bowel-cancer-screening-changes-driven-by-ideology-not-facts
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March 11, 2025 8:07am
- Ra Henare
  
  The question of course is at what genetic stage does the risk increase in Maori/Pacifica.
  
  25% Maori/Pacifica
  5% Maori/Pacifica
  
  and has that data been filtered to remove all other variables.
  
  Facts are funny things when used by other than unbiased statisticians, ethical researchers.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:19am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  These leftie as bd media assholes are saying this is a broken promise not to drop the age to 45.
  
  For a start, Nats policy was to get level with Aussie which was 50 has dropped their age to 45 this year.
  
  As Brown said this week we will progressively drop the age staffing and equipment allows, Labour were going to have separatist laws for people who we’re not white.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:21am
- cmm
  
  There are numerous ways in which different races have different physical outcomes (health, stamina, speed,…) so it would be unsurprising if Maori had a greater bowel cancer risk – no matter other factors.
  
  If it is or is not true that Maori genetics are more prone to bowel cancer or any other disease that’s largely irrelevant – we can’t make laws to change that.
  
  The biggest single factor in this is that Maori do not make use of the ample resources made available to them. No matter all the effort, they just don’t do the most important part – get off your arse and submit a sample.
  
  And this is true of all areas of healthcare (oh, and school, census, etc too). Just friggin show up. Just do the homework. Just engage with your kids teachers. Just fill out the form.
  
  You can’t bleat about equity and expect equal outcomes unless you’re also doing your bit.
  
  Simeon Brown seems to come from a business background. I hope that gives him at least some ability to interpret statistics. Still, it is a bold move making statements contradicting health researchers unless he can show a pile of stats to back them up. (Not that I trust the universities. I suspect they’re playing activist.)
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:27am
  - Cassandra
    
    There’s a bit more to Ca bowel diagnosis than sending in a sample viz. colonoscopy, and that might be the problem. The procedure is not for the faint hearted.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:32am
    - David Garrett
      
      Cass: Not for the faint hearted? I have had four of them, and found them uneventful. The preparation used to taste terrible, but now it just tastes like one of those sports drink.
      Sitting om the toilet squirting liquid every 10 minutes is certainly not fun, but then neither is bowel cancer
      
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      March 11, 2025 8:39am
      - Cassandra
        
        You’re very stoic, DG, I found them to be awful. Best news had was the gastroenterologist telling me that that’s it, I’d reached the age of discretion! But yes, infinitely less awful than cancer which is ghastly (speaking from experience).
        
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        March 11, 2025 8:59am
      - David Garrett
        
        Cass: I think a lot of men make a huge fuss about the procedure because it involves sticking something up their bott bott…
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:03am
      - pdm
        
        I had one 18 months ago – far less troublesome than I expected. Was given an, subject to lab results from 6 polyps removed, all clear immediately after.
        
        Friday a week later, while in Hastings Library I got a call for an urgent appointment at Hospital on the Monday. mrspdm was in Auckland to see one of our grandchildren in a play.
        
        A long, worrying, weekend saw both of us front at 8.30am Monday for said appointment. At about 9.30am Surgeon wandered in and saw us only to tell us the lab reports were all clear. The ignorant prick did not even apologise for our weekend of worry and mrspdm having to cut short her Auckland trip.
        
        We were only called in because they were filling in the time due to a nurses strike so no procedures that day.
        
        I hope I never see him again – anywhere.
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:21am
      - Dr John
        
        all men need to read this report:
        https://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article1928847.html
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:53am
      - David Garrett
        
        Dr John: that boy can write! In my case, due to my tolerance for valium (all legally prescribed) I am, unlike most, aware throughout the “procedure”…and as I say above, it is no big deal.
        
        But then I have no fear that I am a closet homo, which I truly believe is why men feel they have to make such a fuss about both digital prostate exams and colonoscopies. Let’s just say a finger up the bum is part of an Asian “happy ending” massage.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:10am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Right on DG. I have had five. The preparation is terrible but not so bad at the end of the 3 litres.
        I get polyps which are removed. Recovery in a room full of others who had the same procedure can be funny, everyone is farting because of the compressed air.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:45am
      - slijmbal
        
        @David & Cassandra
        
        he is, however, referring to standard age based bowel screening, which is just sticking a tiny bit of poo in a plastic bottle and posting it off.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:55am
      - JJ56
        
        Steve Otto N Shore my understanding is that they use CO2 not air, and there is naturally a major lobby to curtail this planet destroying activity.
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:51am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        @JJ56.
        What are we going to do without CO2? Colonoscopy farting with methane?
        No CO2 means no more fizzy piss, not even beer. Welding – Mig welding uses a mixture of gases these days but CO2 is a component.
        These uneducated Green wonks have no idea!
        
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        March 11, 2025 3:38pm
      - JJ56
        
        Steve, little known fact. Renewable CO2 is more valuable than renewable H2.
        
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        March 11, 2025 4:53pm
    - cmm
      
      Certainly colonoscopy etc are intrusive but they’re failing at the first (and very easy) hurdle – sending in a screening sample. Very simple.
      
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      March 11, 2025 8:40am
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        I had a sample to send in several years ago.
        What got me was the very clear readily understood instructions on the best way to do it. The instructions were worded in such a brilliant manner that I thought “why can’t other government departments copy that simplicity”.
        Whoever designed those instructions; I would buy a beer or two for that person.
        Results were excellent.
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:33am
      - Dr John
        
        David: have you heard about the two finger digit exam?
        When the MD uses 2 fingers, he will get a second opinion
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:38am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Because of my history of polyps I do need the colonoscopy.
        Last time in the theatre there were 5 women, women only.
        I asked “why do 5 women want to look at my bum?” Broke the peace with a few giggles!
        
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        March 11, 2025 3:41pm
    - GJM
      
      I have had them every 5 years for 35 years. The novelty wore off long ago, but it is better now than when I first started. The cleaning prep used to taste like the 7 seas and you had so much of it. Now it is 2 litres of salty sweet water.
      
      BTW Private costs around $5k a time.
      
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      March 11, 2025 3:30pm
  - john1234
    
    That Maori pup reporter on One News last night lauding the size of the Maori economy and the countless billions in Iwi assets. They even interviewed [Mod – just use people’s names] Morgan who bragged about how his mob are not reliant on the government.
    Given the above, why the endless and increasing wailing for more handouts to Maori in preference to other race based groups?
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:47am
    - Burtland
      
      how long will NZ allow maori business to claim charity status
      – or is this a cornerstone of the ethno-state ?
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:29am
    - pdm
      
      Time for Iwi business to pay tax at Company tax rates.
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:38am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Yes, the cub reporter waxed lyrical about the contribution of Maori businesses to society, but in the absence of paying corporate tax, that contribution is a bit lame-o, to turn a phrase.
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:57pm
    - OlderChas
      
      Yes I heard Tukuroirangi explaining that their settlement was mostly in assets so they were behind all others she got millions in cash. No mention of the millions Waikato were given, but wasted on buying the Warriors, a few pubs in Aussie (that promptly went broke!) and the like.
      
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      March 11, 2025 1:01pm
  - PurplePen
    
    “You can’t bleat about equity and expect equal outcomes unless you’re also doing your bit.”
    
    Yes. They need to heed Treaty article 3 “Maori have the same rights and duties as the rest”. That duties bit seems to be OK to completely ignore.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:39am
- Taieri
  
  It is a matter of fact genetics is important. Social environment is important. There are a lot of social determinants of health … but ethnicity definitely is a major factor.
  ———————
  
  How do we establish the true ethnicity though?
  Is someone with one Maori great-grand parent at the equal risk as someone with one Maori grand parent? What about someone with just one such great-great-grand parent? All are classified as Maori, but genetically they are very different.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:35am
  - Yvette
    
    Kiri Allan, then East Coast MP, was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer, and was told as a wāhine Māori, she had just a 13.3 percent chance of surviving it.
    
    However Kiri Allen’s income, living (accomodation) circumstances, and level of treatment probably mitigated such a dire preciction as “just a 13.3 percent chance of surviving”.
    
    Kiri Allen’s better than average position (reasonable, one assumes, to be discussed as she made details public) was another factor as well as the definition she is Maori, to her outcome.
    
    Taieri you ask – How do we establish the true ethnicity though?
    
    With stage 3 cervical cancer, if you define yourself as Maori but you have 1 sixty-fourth inherited genetics that may be physiologically crook, what outcome do you hope for, and actually have, compared to a “full blood” 100 percent, all sixty four sixty fourths, with “just a 13.3 percent chance of surviving”?
    As with a lot of other “Maori problems”, define Maori
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:02am
    - PurplePen
      
      How do they know it’s not one of the 3 or 4 other ethnicities that might make up Kiri’s DNA.
      
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      March 11, 2025 11:42am
  - nova
    
    Yes, exactly right. If genetics is a factor then someone with 1/8 Maori ancestry should get precedence over someone with only 1/32 Maori ancestry. If in fact socio-economic factors are more important, then why should a rich Maori lawyer get precedence over a poor white person, who may have. a greater risk profile. A race based system when we all have a unique combination of ancestors seems fraught with unintended consequences.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:03am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      It should be based on need, not race.
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:49am
  - nova
    
    In Kiri’s case, she was told she had a 40% chance of surviving 5 years, which will have already been tailored to her specific circumstances. If she truly believed she was 3 times more likely to die than she was told, dividing 40% by 3 was not the correct calculation. She should have worked out her chance of dying (60%), and multiplied that by 3.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:25am
- Paulus
  
  Will somebody tell me WHY it is that Maori and Pacificas are in a worse positon re Bowel Cancer Screening requirement than everybody else ?
  Is it just racial or tell me ?
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:55am
  - sirknz
    
    Most likely to be diet and lifestyle factors.
    
    Just go to a buffet and watch what they load on to their plates.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:06am
  - Yvette
    
    Paulus – Is it just racial or tell me ?
    
    Is it racial, is it social statistics, is it attitude
    or is it because quite extensive television ad campaigns tell them it is a problem
    but to correct an apparent cultural shyness is to turn the whole deal into a sing-along fucking circus?
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:12am
  - MCōs
    
    Why do Kenyans win all those marathons?
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:55am
    - david
      
      Because spending your formative years running through the long grass faster that the snakes and lions tends to make for the surviving runners with speed and stamina world class. Thanks Mr Darwin.
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:33pm
      - MCōs
        
        I’ve never heard of anyone anywhere being chased by a snake for 40km. or surviving an sort of foot race with a lion.
        
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        March 11, 2025 3:25pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      There’s no denying that biological differences between races do contribute to differences in average outcomes. The example you’ve cited reflects East Africans’ natural endowment of slow-twitch muscle fibres. But it’s not clear from the available evidence that Maori are inherently more prone to bowel cancer than Kiwis of other ethnicities.
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:40pm
- Dave
  
  Sir Colin Tukuitonga says:
  
  “For the bowel cancer incidence rate to be the same across ethnic groups, it tells me that for the minority groups the incidence is higher. In other words the rate of occurrence in Māori and Pacific adults is higher. That’s why you end up with the comparable occurrence.”
  
  Can someone explain what this means, as it seems flatly self-contradictory? The only way it could be true that I can see is if total population rates of bowel cancer are the same, but differently distributed across age with non-Maori children having much higher rates of bowel cancer than PI/Maori children, and the reverse being true for adults.
  
  Some diseases are clearly genetic in origin and distribution, eg sickle cell anemia in African-Americans, but bowel cancer?
  
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  March 11, 2025 4:43pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Wellington City Council to spend $11m on fencing off the harbour to prevent drunks falling in the water and drowning themselves.

I understand why grieving parents want action, but these people are architects of their own misfortune. We do not fence off every street near pubs to prevent drunks falling into the roadway and being run over.

The point of the waterfront is for people to enjoy time down by the sea. Putting up fencing is the antithesis of this.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/544384/wellington-council-aware-of-danger-before-man-s-waterfront-death-coroner
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March 11, 2025 8:10am
- David Garrett
  
  Nevermind: My thoughts exactly. But then we have had totally illogical pool fencing rules for decades. In my case it would be even more absurd: 30 metres from the deck at my house there is an unfenced creek plenty deep enough for an adult to drown in, let alone a child.
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:13am
  - OlderChas
    
    And, no doubt, within a few miles is a wholly unfenced ocean (or if west coast – a sea!)
    
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    March 11, 2025 1:05pm
2ic

Congratulations to the National party for managing to poll lower than the worst government we’ve ever had. That’s quite some achievement!

https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/25jan_tuc_poll
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March 11, 2025 8:13am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Perhaps you should look closer. Nats have risen 2 months in a row as Act has lost 50% of its support, as stated several times Seymour will scare the centre back left
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:22am
  - 2ic
    
    I don’t know what figures you’re looking at, but National are down 4.6 from December 2024 to 29.6%.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:44am
    - 2ic
      
      Sorry, looks like I’ve posted the wrong link – I’ve linked to the January poll, not the March one.
      
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      March 11, 2025 9:54am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        You are very quick to ridicule when Nats are dropping, and behind the eightball when they are improving
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:57am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They are up in February , and up again in March, you said it yourself they were at 29% in December, did you simply ignore they have dragged themselves back to 33.5% or whatever it is, and Act have lost 50% support in that same 2 months
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:55am
      - Matt Long
        
        Hurray, National is doing better than Act, unfortunately National scored lower than Labour in the Taxpayers Union poll.
        National has done some very good things recently, getting rid of Orr, and a bunch of failed executives in the health department, but they’re losing the main game.
        
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        March 11, 2025 1:25pm
  - Damocles11
    
    I simply don’t believe this poll. Apparently ACT and NZ First voters are flocking to National, Labour, and TPM. 🤣Yeah, nah.
    
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    March 11, 2025 12:26pm
- peterwn
  
  It is not election year – so what is the problem? I suspect the media are just itching for a palace coup.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:26am
  - john1234
    
    “I suspect the media are just itching for a palace coup.”
    So am I. I had high hopes for Luxon but am now resigned that he’s simply too corporate in outlook and despite being a good manager, not up to the job of being Prime Minister.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:48am
    - Graeme Hall
      
      From reports, Luxon it seems, like Starmer UK PM, to do an outstanding job representing his country when overseas but struggles to connect with voters at home. Problem is, we do need a PM who can work well with other leaders so it is a quandary. He needs to speak directly and act quickly to tackle local problems instead of dithering about like Labour – perpetually taking advice & forming committees.
      
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      March 11, 2025 3:52pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The hit job on Bayly yesterday was disgusting, asking in the street for people to rubbish him for being off for 2 weeks, tell me just one of the Labour numpties who did not take extended time off after being dragged from their job kicking and screaming? How many times did we hear they had mental health issues?
    
    Then they showed the PMs seat empty and they said it was Thursday, not the opposition leader, it’s fine for him to be off.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:51am
    - nova
      
      Atrocious hit job on Bayley, and very poorly reported. Initial reports that he was taking two weeks off to “climb Mt Everest”, which is clearly absurd. It takes longer than two weeks to acclimatise and March is not suitable weather to summit. Most ascents happen in May. Subsequent reporting clarified that he is actually trekking to Everest Base Camp, which is a very different proposition. But the headlines still lead with the “climb Mt Everest” narrative.
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:38am
      - peterwn
        
        That is what I thought when reading it, especially after reading about DPF’s similar trip some years ago.
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:12pm
      - muzled
        
        That alone shows how stupid reporters are.
        
        Not an ounce of logic applied to how long it might take to even travel to the country and back and then have a quick moments thought about what else needs to be squeezed in…
        
        Getting to base camp and back in two weeks sounds rather tight to me.
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:24pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        He is only climbing up to the base camp, he is not submitting, end of April May is the usual summiting
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:38pm
    - PurplePen
      
      Not to mention the endless line-up of criminal and suspect Green MPs taking time off.
      
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      March 11, 2025 11:45am
  - 2ic
    
    Take a look at the preferred PM graph on the link above – Luxon has been on a downward trend every month for the last 5 months.
    
    The public have given up on Luxon, and midway through his term I think we can all see he’s not going to turn that around.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:52am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      So this economy is turning around rapidly, they have dealt with inflation and interest rates and handed back the stolen taxes. Last week was the first time since well before Covid that taxes were higher than anticipated, and spending was down as well, tourism spending is up to pre covid levels and most of our exports are booming. This government are doing exactly what they promised, yes Luxon doesn’t always get his questions right, but what more was he supposed to do in 16 months? GDP figures will be out this month, expect quite a marked improvement. So why the hell e we kind people want to go back to failed financially illiterate Labour, but bar Greens and corrupt TPM?
      
      P.S. I refuse to believe TPM are at 6.5% they were polling above 4% before the election, and received 2%, why would 6.5% not drop as well
      
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      March 11, 2025 9:06am
      - pdm
        
        G your loyalty is impressive but, there is something not working at the top.
        
        Agree re Maori Party – they are a 3% party vote outfit on a good day with a following wind.
        
        By the same token ACT at around 7% is not credible either – they are at least 9/10% and have done the `hard yards’ with legislation, particularly by Brooke van Velden who was the best prepared Minister when they took over Government.
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:29am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Off the top of my head, achievements of the coalition management team…
        
        – Temporary accommodation crime and expense fixed,
        – Inflation tamed,
        – growth returning,
        – public sector restructure undeway,
        – UAE trade agreement signed,
        – India trade talks reaching a crescendo,
        – long term infrastructure planning complete,
        – infrastructure investors about to attend a conference,
        – education solutions implemented without fuss,
        – school attedance improving,
        – ram raids stopped,
        – crime reducing,
        – gangs targeted,
        – health workfore expanding,
        – road works everywhere you drive,
        – public boards and ceos getting replaced,
        – banned cell phones in schools,
        – funding then halving the cost of school lunches,
        – whanau ora restructure.
        – public kpis and kpi reporting restored.
        – not one word of dissatisfaction in the high performing management team from coalition mps.
        
        I’ve got more but my thumbs need a rest.
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:56am
      - Don Beckett
        
        I am no fan of Luxon, but we need to look beyond the one man, and look at the team, because the Govt. has achieved a good deal and dumping Luxon now is a bad idea. We know the history of those who change their leader before an election – with one exception.
        We are correct in saying that there are many urgent things that should be attended to – Maorification & DEI being the two most prominent – but changing the leader at this time in the election cycle is a No No.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:55am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        PDM, its not about bloody loyalty, i refuse to accept tin ear Labour and Greens and TPM, there are two options, but at this point it is Act letting the coalition down
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:58am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Robrob, this is very well known, there is a huge stink about exactly this issue, if you do not know this then you must be very closed off to what is happening, I bet most people on this blog understand that the Nat’s are putting the settings back to where they were when signed in the KEY government, again is the damage from the previous government that have given into the Māori elites
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:02am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        PDM again, you are wrong, at this next local government elections this year there must be a referendum on councils having maori seats, these councils can waste time and money if they want, but they must abide by the referendum result
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:05am
      - Damocles11
        
        So you “refuse to believe” that TPM are on 6.5% – which I agree is an utterly absurd and unbelievable number – yet you clearly believe that the kind of people who vote for ACT and NZ First have been enticed over to woke Luxon and National, as well as Labour…..and TPM.
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:53pm
    - kiwimike
      
      If he stood up to the Maorification of NZ, his poll would turn around.
      
      He won’t as he & National supports it, along with Maori Co-Governance, Customary rights and the Foreshore & Seabed. He is not for 83% of the population of New Zealand, but an ethno-state.
      
      After all they never ceded sovereignty and colonists stole their land off of them and their idlic lifestyle before 1840.
      
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      March 11, 2025 9:15am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Utter rubbish there is no co-governance, that is simply bullshit, if you count calling Egmont a person then that is bullshit. The govern are cutting the customary rights right back to the original settings
        
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        March 11, 2025 9:46am
      - RoboRob
        
        @G
        
        ‘The govern are cutting the customary rights right back to the original settings’
        
        If they are, they are not communicating this well. I am sure the issue is the messaging.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:00am
      - Ghost
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/523143/customary-marine-title-government-to-overturn-court-of-appeal-precedent
        
        https://www.simpsongrierson.com/insights-news/legal-updates/supreme-court-resolves-the-test-for-customary-marine-title-under-foreshore-and-seabed-legislation-but-further-changes-in-the-law-are-pending
        
        https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/01/22/judge-grants-maori-six-more-customary-marine-titles-as-govt-second-guesses-its-coastline-reform/
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:13am
      - pdm
        
        G – co governance being, if not already in place, introduced by Wanganui and Rotorua Councils with Tauranga DC looking to head down that route as well.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:45am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        That proves my point. Relying on MSM to report on complex legal changes isn’t communicating your success in making NZ one country for all and removing co governance.
        
        In fact the only time Luxon mentions co governance is when he is attacked on it by the MSM. It’s like he doesn’t want us to know about it becuase it might lose him votes.
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:45am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Luxon should forget about currying favour with Maori elite and concentrate on currying favour with all the working Indian/Asians who far out number the Maori Vote.
        
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        March 11, 2025 4:51pm
  - cmm
    
    It would be interesting to sift through the data and determine whether the Luxon slide is due to:
    1) Lefties getting more vociferous.
    2) National supporters giving up.
    3) Act supporters being frustrated.
    
    The first group have not likely changed their position.
    The last group is too small to move the needle.
    
    That means it is most likely the National supporters feeling let down.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:00am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Nats have been up the last 2 TPU polls, they were at 30% after Christmas. Act have lost 60% of their support in 2 months, they are scaring the centre back to labour as expected.
      
      It’s not the Nats letting the side down, yes Luxon has to get on top of his media brief, but surely that is not up blame for Act dropping like a stone since Christmas
      
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      March 11, 2025 9:09am
      - RoboRob
        
        I know its nice to be able to blame the governments woes on the minor parties but I am sure you know that NZF and ACT generally poll low during the term and peak at election time. In the same way the Greens and TPM generally poll high and drop at election time.
        
        For the last 30+ years NZF has hoverred 50%) the greens had a poor result for them.
        
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        March 11, 2025 10:05am
      - cmm
        
        I would expect that Act disillusion is mainly due to two factors:
        1) Act is failing to hold the coalition’s feet to the fire especially on the TPB. Whether this is their fault or not – they are being ineffective and the TPB is failing.
        2) Seymour comes across as being a bit arrogant.
        
        Those that are disillusioned by the lack of progress on the TPB are unlikely to switch allegiance to National who outright oppose the TPB and have done everything they can to undermine it.
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:03am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Roborob
        
        Not true, Act were at 14% in January, they are crashing, every time Seymour opens his mouth he looks like a fool, sorry, but that is fact
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:10am
      - thirteenstars
        
        “Act have lost 60% of their support in 2 months, they are scaring the centre back to labour as expected.”
        
        [Mod – just debate the topic without the personal stuff]
        
        Considering it’s long been your thesis that every vote for ACT is a vote stolen from National (“filched” was the term you originally used), why hasn’t National benefited instead of the bizarre assertion that right-of-centre ACT voters have gone running to the most left-wing collection of opposition parties in our history? It’s a strange voter that votes for Treaty Principles clarification and downsizing government but then runs off to the parties of special rights for Maori and big government.
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:38am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Thirteen stars.
        
        Sorry they have list 50% support not 60. My bad, but 14% in January to 7% 2 months later is 50% as far as I remember
        
        What the hell is filched ffs?
        
        Act are losing the support back to Labour and Nats, they have lost 50% in two months, you might not like it but it’s fact.
        
        And what ever your derogatory statement was that has been taken down was, I don’t GAF
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:41pm
      - Quail
        
        GG et al,
        Who would have thought of cynically blaming the minor parties leaders for the lack of performance/popularity and achievement of the Coalition and it’s leader —- Nationals Luxon ?
        A gift that keeps giving!
        Personally ,I would love to see the Coalition leader take on the issues that matter, and they all matter to someone!
        Many are listed here on this blog.
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:59pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Its the trend that’s important. The government is failing to sell its policy to consumers. At this point they are simply hoping the RBNZ interest rate changes pump up the economy and they get a tail wind. To be fair they are running into the head wind of a Labour created recession at the moment.
    
    My comments apply equally to National, Act and NZF. All are trending down.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:02am
  - G152
    
    Our media have many many polling resources to tell them what they need to tell us porkies.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:04am
  - Bloody Dago
    
    At a Kia dealership this morning and saw a NZ Herald on the coffee room table. It remained unopened. Nuf said. The silent majority are onto these MSM idiots.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:00am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      One can only hope
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:45pm
  - MCōs
    
    Plenty of people on this forum “itching for a palace coup” too.
    
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    March 11, 2025 12:54pm
- kowtow
  
  It’s such an achievement it is the screaming front page headline on the Herald .
  
  Does anyone remember an insignificant poll ( in the election cycle) meriting the front page in the past?
  
  Or does this suit the Herald’s ongoing campaign against the coalition .
  
  On the positive side it makes a welcome change from some pupil having a cruddy cold lunch .
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:42am
  - OlderChas
    
    I see the school lunch provider company Libelle has gone into liquidation today. So guess the headlines re school lunches will persist for a while yet?
    
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    March 11, 2025 1:15pm
  - MCōs
    
    Yes
    The UK polls, four years out from elections, have pulses racing right here where they are of little consequence
    
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    March 11, 2025 3:45pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  But surely we always knew that good government requires actions that are necessary, but which won’t be popular? Poll-driven governments shrinking away from doing things which are necessary, and which will eventually pay off, but which won’t be popular – are precisely what got us into the mess we’re in.
  
  Some of us seem to think that Luxon’s not going far enough, and that is a legitimate opinion – but not one that you can coherently hold while simultaneously blaming him for low mid-term polling. Those polls would be subterranean by now if he’d done as you’d like.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:23am
  - RoboRob
    
    ‘Some of us seem to think that Luxon’s not going far enough, and that is a legitimate opinion – but not one that you can coherently hold while simultaneously blaming him for low mid-term polling. Those polls would be subterranean by now if he’d done as you’d like.
    
    I dont think they have gone far enough with their cuts and with race relations stuff. We have just seen a US politician do exactly what you claim would harm National. Trump is doing very well by following through with his promises (even the stupid ones like tariffs). National might have done just as well if they had gone hard and followed through. In the first year they had a free hand to close entire govt departments, but they shied away from it. Now its too late. We are still borrowing MORE then under Labour.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:10am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Then again you are not listening, Willis was talking about leading up to the budget, and she has clearly stated she will be looking at further cuts, she says those cuts will be on going
      
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      March 11, 2025 11:12am
      - RoboRob
        
        I know that Willis has flagged further cuts. I would be stunned if departments were closed. The cuts will be along the same lines as the global 6% last year but much smaller and (hopefully) more targetted. Likely she will announce a freeze at last years funding levels (essentially a cut by the inflation %).
        
        If National were going to close or merge a govt depart or agency, it would not have to wait until the budget for announcement. If National were serious about getting back in the black there are a heap of do nothing agencies that could be scrapped. They dont have the balls to do it though and we know this bacause the have been appointing people to the very agencies that should go.
        
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        March 11, 2025 1:06pm
      - RoboRob
        
        G.
        
        Do you think enough has been cut?
        Do you think the next round of cuts will be enough?
        Has National made any mistakes this term?
        
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        March 11, 2025 1:13pm
    - artemisia
      
      Trumps will be walking some things back, when it makes sense in his worldview. But his mark became indelible when he decided against ‘the first 100 days’ and went with ‘the first hundred hours’.
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:32pm
      - RoboRob
        
        National had that opportunity when they came in too. There was universal agreement we were broke and evasive action was required. It was an open invitiation to close shit.
        
        I recall debating with BY at the time, defending the blanket cuts that he rightly argued were not targetted enough. I argued they were an emergency move and the first step while they worked out what and where to trim further. Thus far further has not arrived.
        
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        March 11, 2025 1:12pm
- No BS
  
  A staggering result indeed. I am massively disappointed in National, in particular Luxon. They are not delivering on what they promised, govt agencies and local councils continue to undermine them, effectively giving them the middle finger. What is more frightening is the NZ public and their short memories, and the complete lack of consequence if the commies (greens) and TPM (racists) form a govt. Unbelievable. NZ is stuffed if that happens. Seriously looking at selling up and moving overseas as I cant see a future here in NZ. NZ needs someone with the courage to stop the woke madness and separatism, and that person is not Luxon. Heres a start – stop funding the media and prosecute TPM for their seriously dodgy dealings at Manuwera.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:45am
  - pdm
    
    Agreed bs.
    
    Simon Watts has been invisible, until yesterday where he is said to be fixing Wellington Water, since he took over as Local Government Minister.
    
    A boy appointed to a mans job it seems.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:48am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They are doing exactly what they promised, tell me what they are doing that they didnt promise, and don’t waffle about the TPB because we all know well what Nats and NZF’s stance on the TPB was well, before the election
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:14am
NothingLeft

First AI agent (AI tool that can go off and do tasks independently on the internet, ie agentic – able to figure out how to do tasks itself) is released. Chinese Manus AI

https://youtu.be/GuVnLSQujSU

It is by all reports (and the above review) amazingly good, doing tasks that would take many days for a capable smart person in minutes and will soon be able to replace a huge amount of human labor – particularly the office juniors and administrative support staff.

So when are the general public going to finally wake up to the soon-to-be inability to compete with AI for jobs? This year? Next? What is going to be the govt response?
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March 11, 2025 8:14am
- Master Mariner
  
  When AI can change a car tyre, Dig a trench, Build a house then I will take notice.
  I compare this with the advent of Computers and we no longer need trades with computers doing everything. Outcome was shortage of qualified tradies etc.
  What is compelling for me is Weather forecasting which used to take the biggest computing power to generate a forecast. This in my mind is where AI should “shine”, However to date Zilch.
  It is no more than a “Tool” such as a Computer ( Programs, Apps etc) and smart phone.
  Im not convinced apart from programming and writing articles, Searching etc, It appears to be overhyped.
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:03am
  - artemisia
    
    I sent the young plumber / gasfitter in the family some info from the US about AI in his industry. Seems like it would not be too difficult to have AI produce quotes, purchasing and work schedules, project plans. Even for complex jobs.
    
    All this currently done by his employer of course, as he is mostly on the tools, but could take way less time. A big advantage when he starts his own business.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:24am
  - thirteenstars
    
    You’re wrong about AI but you’re not about the hot jobs of the future.
    
    Shrewd commentators like Mike Rowe have for many years been observing the glut of useless university degrees that don’t justify the enormous cost and leave young people in debt often with no good return on investment.
    
    But the demand for jobs in the trades and in the physical service industries has risen and the money on offer is good to excellent. AI is only accelerating that trend as it will soon make holders of those useless degrees even more redundant.
    
    Rowe’s excellent podcast:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/@therealmikerowe/videos
    
    and Rowe on Adam Carolla’s podcast with his very interesting backstory and much more besides:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZWxDoqsZtI
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:54am
  - JJ56
    
    Keep an eye open for the next wave, eg Tesla Bot.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:59am
- PurplePen
  
  Read this yesterday in Newsweek …
  
  Changes to the white-collar job market suggest “that the economy is fundamentally changing due to new technologies,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, said in the S&P Global report.
  
  This is a concern shared by many experts. A new study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that 70 percent of 22,000 analyzed tasks in white-collar roles could be “transformed” or “replaced” by AI. These included “Organizational and strategic tasks” and “repetitive and non-repetitive cognitive and analytical tasks,” the most likely to be taken over by AI.
  
  https://www.newsweek.com/white-collar-jobs-disappearing-2031221
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:50am
cmm

Maybe it is just me, but I really think we need to be looking for housing flexibility – not ways to shut it down.

“Tiny homes” are not considered buildings – reducing the need for consents etc. To maintain this fiction they:
1) must be moveable (on wheels)
2) cannot be solidly attached to the ground.

So basically they are caravans.

So what happens when you attach two such units at 90 degrees? Well the whole structure is now no longer moveable as a whole, so no more loop hole.

And the officious little cardigan-wearing man with a clipboard comes and shuts you down.

I’m sure it gave the wee man a power rush to substitute for not getting his leg over for 3 years.

The real question though is whether it is a good thing for society in general to shut down these housing options? We should be looking at ways to relax rules to open up options – not shut them down.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360605880/tiny-home-ruling-will-be-fought-death-manufacturer
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March 11, 2025 8:15am
- artemisia
  
  A few years ago Rodney Hide suggested an area could be set aside to be used for housing without most of the rules and regs. IIRC occupiers could build whatever they liked and take any consequences, provided it did not impact neighbours, presumably unless consent was given.
  
  I always thought that would be worth an experiment, #8 wire rises again.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:21am
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    In some US States, building outside the municipal area & off public grid for services is left up to the landowners.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:32am
  - cmm
    
    “An area”, so basically what Americans would call a trailer park.
    
    While I am not opposed to trailer parks I think people should have far more flexibility around the structures they put on any land.
    
    There seems to be a huge worry about the neighbours being impacted but let’s face it – a consented building can become a slum too. They are really separate issues.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:43am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: I have never understood why successive governments seem always to be opposed to trailer parks.
      
      I have spent the night in several such “trailers” when I was in the US many years ago. In my admittedly limited experience, they are very well designed, so seem much more spacious than they are, and the finish was pretty good too.
      
      Surely our architects and tradesmen can design and build something similar which meets NZ building codes?
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:19am
      - cmm
        
        Agreed.
        
        I fully understand that some people prefer “real” houses and some people are concerned that cheaper housing options will drive down house values, but I think pre-manufactured houses (be those mobile homes or partially prefabricated houses) are a good idea to throw into the mix.
        
        Kitsets and mobile houses allow the most expensive parts of the fabrication to be performed in factories – reducing costs and improving build quality.
        
        Many of the old mining houses (eg. Glentunnel miners’ cottages) were kitsets.
        
        Many of the houses built during the 1950s housing boom were partially prefabricated allowing them to be taken on site and put up in kit-set fashion. Solid as. Our last house was one of those and it survived relocation very well – better than many of the modern stick houses would.
        
        Perhaps there is some concern over the slum-factor of some USA and Canadian trailer parks but really is that any different to state housing in parts of S Auckland etc?
        
        I lived for a few months in the Glentunnel campground when “between houses” some of those camp grounds have permanent structures which are, effectively, trailer park mobile homes. It was a pleasant enough existence.
        
        The Darfield Earthquake epicentre was not far from the Glentunnel caravan park and those dwellings survived better than the modern houses in the town.
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:20am
  - Master Mariner
    
    I fully agree, Much like the 3 little Pigs. Do your home work before purchasing etc, Same as a Bloody car.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:05am
- peterwn
  
  I thought there would be no problem if they were merely joined by nuts and bolts so the two parts could be separated on minutes.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:24am
  - cmm
    
    Possibly, but it seems to me that there should not be different laws depending on whether or not you can undo two bolts or have to use an angle grinder.
    
    Given the pedantic nature of these people, bolts are probably OK so long as you don’t apply Loctite.
    
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    March 11, 2025 8:46am
- rjay
  
  That’s all very well but these tiny home residents still use water, produce waste , drive on local roads, etc. At what stage do we simply agree that they need to pay their share of community expenses and not freeload on the rest of us?
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:25am
  - cmm
    
    Building consents and laws etc are a very different matter to rates and such.
    
    There is no reason why these dwellings could not pay rates and still be allowed to be built.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:22am
  - nova
    
    Rates aren’t charged on an occupancy basis. I have a house with 4 people and pay almost $8000 a year in rates. I’m pretty sure that I could find another house within 1 km with more occupants that pays less than half what I do.
    So while it is true tiny homes often freeload, the whole system of local bodies being very progressive in their rating structures and generally wasting money on nice to haves needs to be look at.
    
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    March 11, 2025 12:36pm
    - cmm
      
      There are certainly ways that rating structures could be changed to work with changes in occupancy and land usage.
      
      I’m sure we pay more than our fair share in a 5 bedroom house with just the missus and I.
      
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      March 11, 2025 5:02pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  One of the biggest holdups with the tiny houses is the chassis cost for towing. It must be able to stop in 7 meters at 30 kph. Given the weight that means brakes.
  If over 2500 kg GVM it must have vehicle controlled brakes – unless it is the European stored energy system (large spring with bowden cable brakes.) This gives it up to 3500k kg GVM.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:20am
  - PurplePen
    
    You can have a mobile dwelling on a sled or runners, or even tied to piling. As far as I know it’s still considered portable if you can slide or hoist it onto a transport trailer.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:55am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Possibly, but have you seen where some of these tiny houses go?
      Some could only be placed with a helicopter.
      I come from the world of trailer manufacture – thousands of them. Also done heavy boat haulage (same company) so some boats are built in ridiculous places to get them out of.
      
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      March 11, 2025 3:47pm
  - cmm
    
    One wonders why the wheels and brakes etc are not removeable.
    
    eg. a double-framed trailer – build the tiny house on the one frame then when it gets on site crank it up a bit and drive the wheeled and braked trailer out.
    
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    March 11, 2025 5:05pm
Bridgenag

The US Dept of Education: Going Forward
We Now Have an Unparalleled Opportunity Available

” What is our future if it is being determined by citizens who have no Critical Thinking skills, and have been thoroughly propagandized [sic]by Left-leaning ideology???”

https://open.substack.com/pub/criticallythinking/p/the-us-dept-of-education-going-forward?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 11, 2025 8:16am
NeverMindTheBollocks

In news to nobody, Fleur Fitzsimmons is an idiot. Health NZ’s digital and data team is clearly overstaffed. 1 in every 16 HNZ employees works for the team, due to each of the 20 DHBs having their own teams. With the axing of DHBs, staff reductions are inevitable – we all want the savings driven by efficiencies of scale, right?

Whether the number of redundancies is correct is another matter. Circa 50% in one fell swoop seems high, given that many systems have yet to be deduplicated. Minister Brown is right to request another view. But, whatever the outcome, many jobs will go. This is a cause for celebration, both for the reduction in costly headcount and for the freeing up of experienced IT staff for other jobs.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/544385/will-health-nz-s-it-workers-get-a-reprieve-from-cuts
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March 11, 2025 8:21am
artemisia

Is Whānau Ora under ‘attack’? New contracts raise alarm

But reading between the lines, some carefully worded hints of a different view emerge.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon – It’s not about an individual commissioning agency, or frankly, John Tamihere, it’s actually about making sure those agencies deliver

Dave Samuels, the secretary for Māori development – “Contracts for Whānau Ora commissioning services … process was overseen by an independent evaluation panel”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360609101/whanau-ora-under-attack-new-contracts-raise-alarm
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March 11, 2025 8:23am
- sirknz
  
  Beteridge’s Law of Headlines is in play.
  
  The answer is “No.”.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:40am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  All the contracts that Labour ever let should be looked at
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:54am
- cmm
  
  If they tell you they’re independent, then they bloody well aren’t.
  
  Same as independent journalism that is dependent on hand outs and advertising revenue.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:56am
  - RoboRob
    
    Great point. All these ‘independant reviews’ are setup with rules and scope designed to restrict the result to the desired outcome. Ever see a Labour run ‘independant’ review of taxation that recommended a reduction or a status quo?
    
    I think the last government had some where they specifically rulled out investigation into certain areas from the start.
    
    90% of the time these reviews are designed simply to give the govt of the day ‘research’ to argue their policy on.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:06am
    - PurplePen
      
      Covid no.1 inquiry initiated by Labour springs to mind.
      
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      March 11, 2025 11:58am
pdm

`process was overseen by an independent evaluation panel’

Panel members being?
Caren Rangi (Chair), Tania Hodges, Te Rau Kupenga, Donna Matahaere-Atariki, Kim Ngarimu, and Brenda Steele.

There might be your problem – what expertise do they have?

I have not heard of any of them.
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March 11, 2025 8:38am
- john1234
  
  And also… what are their tribal affiliations?
  Blood is thicker than water in Maoridom.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:52am
- artemisia
  
  That panel had the all the contending applications in front of them, and then dumped all of the existing commissioning agencies.
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:52am
- G152
  
  It would appear that there is a bias in that ‘panel’
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:07am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I have for one of them…
  https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/en/about/about-the-waitangi-tribunal/tribunal/kim-ngarimu
  
  Perhaps we should be noticing some of the folk who have taken up leadership positions through the Public Service-Business route.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caren_Rangi
  
  https://www.digitalindigenous.co.nz/team/tania-hodges
  
  https://www.manamokopuna.org.nz/about/people/donna-matahaere-atariki/
  
  https://nz.linkedin.com/in/te-rau-kupenga-2162a95a
  
  https://nz.linkedin.com/in/brenda-steele-0b0954a1
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:07am
Chuck Bird

The Dow has recovered a little but shows a tariff war is dumb.
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March 11, 2025 8:39am
- kowtow
  
  The market goes up and the market goes down.
  
  Don’t panic .
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:44am
- cmm
  
  Tariff wars are a temporary bargaining tool.
  
  Any manipulations of the financial situation impact the stock market – increasing/reducing interest rates, cutting/increasing money supply etc etc. Covid lockdowns etc too.
  All those impact the Dow. Does that mean they are all dumb?
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:55am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Agreed, look at 2017 tariffs? Dow was down for a while, but recovered to record highs.
    
    Let’s not forget that Trump is using tariffs as a bargaining tool, and he is also offering lower taxes for companies moving home to build products instead of going to third world countries
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:12am
  - RoboRob
    
    No. But the tariff war is bad becuase of the uncertainty. One day they are on the next they are off and then they are paused, then they are on. Business cant operate with uncertainty, see NZ oil and gas exploration.
    
    I like the idea of tariffs as a bargaining tool but I’m not sure what bargain Trump is after with Canada. They have already tightened the border and fentonal was never a major problem. Will be interesting to see what, if anything, Trump wants from Canada.
    
    If he is doing it to encourage production to the USA, thats a very long game and will hurt the US consumer in the short to medium term.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:12am
    - kowtow
      
      Uncertainty.
      
      How about factory workers who don’t know when their jobs are about to go north or south of the border due to “free trade”.
      
      That’s what happened .
      
      One man’s stock dividends are another man’s life time on social security , paid for by other broke tax payers.
      
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      March 11, 2025 9:29am
      - newview
        
        kt, so American consumers will be pleased to pay more for expensive produce made in the US because wages are higher and companies likely less efficient. That’s what tariffs highlight. The country using them can’t compete internationally. But the US doesn’t need the rest of the world does it. Of course there are exceptions and some countries abusing the system but that is the general drift of it.
        
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        March 11, 2025 3:59pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    “I’m going to keep right on shooting myself in the foot until you do as I say”.
    
    Yeah – that’s a great way to bargain.
    
    And for what? What is it that Trump thinks he’s going to bully out of Canada that is worth the cost of long term damage to the US’ relationship with a staunch and reliable ally?
    
    Do we seriously believe that the CANADIAN border presents that much of a threat to the US?
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:36am
  - Master Mariner
    
    In regards to Reserve Banks and there “Independance”,
    
    RBA admits they panicked during the pandemic and made things worse – Estimates 27.2.25
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxVv5uobaEM
    
    Tariff wars are about “perceptions”.
    
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    March 11, 2025 10:10am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It will be no worse than in 2017. Give it a month and no one will even remember, in 17 Dow dropped only to recover to record highs as things levelled out
  
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  March 11, 2025 8:56am
  - pdm
    
    Agree there G.
    
    Remember 9/11. Dow dropped something like 10% when closed until following Monday.
    
    It fully recovered within 3 weeks as I recall.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:35am
sirknz

RIP personal responsibility and common sense.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/coroner-sandy-calkins-drowning-in-wellington-harbour-may-have-been-preventable/RTKTYGDUGVETVKCPQGWKTMHSMU/

Guy falls in harbour and drowns. Ratepayers must now front up and pay for pool fencing becuase a kidult didn’t have the sense to keep away from the edge.
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March 11, 2025 8:42am
Tomtoddy

The mainstream media are winning the battle. They are controlling the narrative with ease. The “sheeple” are doing their bidding. They can’t believe their luck. The poll numbers aren’t lying.

They have managed to plant a “fellow traveller” in a top position who is aiding their cause. He is a gift that keeps on giving. His lack of political experience was high risk, but it is now evident he lacks political nous as well.

He has also made poor choices for staff. They continue to let him down.

He has yet to learn that explaining is losing. He hasn’t realised that a one word answer is needed sometimes to shut down debate or questioning. You have to be a ‘bad bugger’ sometimes and pulverise the enemy – not cuddle them.

Then your deputy dives into an unwinnable fiasco. The school lunch debacle can be kept alive forever. There will always be one lunch too hot or too cold, too small or too big, plastic that burns or doesn’t fit. Its physically impossible at that money to achieve 100% perfection. Its a lazy media’s wet dream.

You can’t win the right because they because they believe parents should feed their kids. You can’t win the left because they will keep pinpricking with the occasional failure and you can’t win the centre because you took a source of income and a social get together away from good wholesome mums who used to make the lunches.

If you can’t poll better than Hipkins there is something seriously wrong. Seriously.
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March 11, 2025 9:01am
- RoboRob
  
  Good point, polling better then Hipkins is a pretty low bar that Luxon is failing to meet.
  
  On the plus side, this might keep Hipkins in the leadership role and keep someone competent out. So might be a good thing for National.
  
  p.s. Yes I am aware there might not be anyone competent in Labour.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:15am
  - pdm
    
    `On the plus side, this might keep Hipkins in the leadership role and keep someone competent out.’
    
    Pray tell who this competent person in Labour might be RR.
    
    Such a person is invisible at the moment.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:37am
    - Ghost
      
      Helen Clark, she’s there right? Because she’s been defrosted almost daily to comment on things. Says a lot for a party when their long, long, long ago leader is still doing the leaders job in the media.
      
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      March 11, 2025 9:46am
    - RoboRob
      
      You missed my p.s PDM. ‘Yes I am aware there might not be anyone competent in Labour.’
      
      My concern would be around a young, ‘attractive’, female with good communication skills being parachuted into leadership of Labour just prior to the next election. I have said for some time I suspect Tova Obrian might be this person (when Stuff goes bust).
      
      It worked for JA and it would work again. I dont understand why but female voters are much more about the feelz.
      
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      March 11, 2025 10:55am
      - R
        
        The female young voters will be the Achilles Heel OF NZ Democracy
        
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        March 11, 2025 1:21pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      It depends on how you define “competent”. Competent at building useful things? Or competent at implementing a Maori ethnostate and killing off potential overseas investment in the NZ economy?
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:47pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    OFFS. Of course Hipkins is doing well in the polls. Nobody has an easier job than a left-wing politician in opposition, particularly with a compliant media at your back. Nothing’s easier to promise than dollops of other people’s money that you won’t actually have to deliver in the politically foreseeable future, and quite possibly not even then.
    
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    March 11, 2025 9:44am
    - MCōs
      
      When the Nats were in opposition it was apparently the hardest job in the world as I recall
      
      3 1
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      March 11, 2025 1:48pm
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Depends on what you think the job of the opposition is.
        
        If you think it is to gain points in the polls, that is indeed easy. Just fling accusations of racism, or meanness, or being out-of-touch, and say that you’d do it better, in response to whatever the government does. Enough people believe that public policy problems can easily be turned round, to be impressed by that.
        
        If you think the opposition’s job is to be ready with responsible, well-thought-through, evidence-based policy approaches that are realistically likely to work in practice – yes, that’s hard. And selling it through a hostile media to voters who don’t understand why you can’t just print more money is harder.
        
        Again. Do you want a government that looks ahead, develops a strategy to get to a better place and patiently sticks at it, or a government that responds to whatever voters seem to want at the time?
        
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        March 11, 2025 2:44pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Dame Anne Salmond’s views on some Bills before Parliament:

https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/signing-big-myth

a rather long read, with this astonishing paragraph:
“It’s about balance in relationships. And so it’s always been quite democratic. If you read the early accounts you see that the early Europeans were astounded that Māori were so democratic in the way they practised their politics. You know, they were always having meetings about everything and having to make collective decisions, and the rangatira couldn’t just tell them what to do.”
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March 11, 2025 9:13am
- RoboRob
  
  Lol. I think even back then the Europeans knew that ‘group decision making’ was one of the worst ways to run any organisation. You only need to look at most tribes now to see the inability to make and stick with decisions.
  
  Sure group decision making looks and feels nice but its a terrible way to run an organisation.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:19am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Case in point, Ngapuhi to decide who represents them in Treaty compensation talks.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:12am
- greybeard
  
  No doubt all of those pre-European meetings were well documented ?
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:34am
Handyman

Once again we have a RNZ headline positioned as fact. It should say “decision driven by ideology, not facts, says Maori activist who presents no facts”

Anyway… I think Brown is easily proved right. Say 100 lives are saved by the move to age 58. 15 of those will be Maori.
If the Maori screening starts at 50 then, pro rata, 60 Maori lives will be saved. Therefore, because 100 is more than 75 Brown’s decision is numerically sound.
Actually the incidence decreases with age so the Maori number from age 50 will be much less.
What the Maori activist really meant was Maori lives are worth more than Pakeha lives.
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March 11, 2025 9:15am
- Jethrod
  
  Are you sure 15 maori lives per 100 citizens would be saved. I think it would be less than that because of an inate, is it fear or loathing, dislike in maori to do the right and proper thing. Methinks vouchers or the like are going to be required to get them to the doctor.
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:19am
  - Handyman
    
    Agreed.
    
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    March 11, 2025 3:48pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Professor Chaudhuri on Dame Anne Salmonds’s contention that you shouldn’t express a view on the Treaty of Waitangi if you cant read te Reo:

The message is: We are smarter than you, we know better. You are not smart enough to understand how things work. So, shut up and sit down while we tell you exactly what is true even if what we are telling you differs dramatically from what you are experiencing in your own lives. We will be your one single source of truth.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/ananish-chaudhuri-inability-to-understand-te-reo-m%C4%81ori-does-not-prevent-people-from-asking-question
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March 11, 2025 9:18am
- Swifty
  
  Whether written in Maori or English, there is nowhere in the treaty which even hints at ‘active protection’ or guaranteeing ‘equitable outcomes.
  
  These are modern concepts recently slipped in.
  
  I really wish the Dame would address these points and tell us how it is that they were slipped in, by whom and on what basis.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:23am
- herb1
  
  Yet Salmond is expressing the view that the Maori who signed the original treaty couldn’t speak or couldn’t read English, but it’s ok for them to comment on the Treaty, and their right to be believed.
  Maori are regularly calling the treaty a partnership whilst never affording their partner normal partnership rights
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:29am
- RichardF
  
  I finally watched Chaudhuri’s submission on the TPB last night. During question time afterwards Ferris asked him, in a long-winded and condescending way, if he had two passports and if he does, would he be willing to give up his Indian passport for just a NZ one. Chaudhuri replied: I gave up my Indian passport many years ago. Ferris, looking stunned, said “ka pai”. We need more people like Chaudhuri to speak up. It was a good submission. He said once we start giving special privileges based on race you’ll have every minority expecting the same. It will be impossible to unwind.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:42am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  He makes some good points but also refers to the Maori version of the Treaty as “the original” which it isn’t, the English version is the original.
  Important point of order.
  
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  March 11, 2025 9:54am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Pretty sure he is suggestion the 1840 version is the original, not the 1975 bullshittery
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:23am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    The English “Littlewood Draft” is the original version.
    Other versions in English are rogue versions, including the back-translation from Maori done by Sir Hugh Kawharu.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:42am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Was that 1850 or what?
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:48pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        The “Littlewood Draft” was in 1840, written by William Hobson, assisted by James Busby – then translated into Maori by Henry Williams and his son Edward. (both fluent in Maori.)
        The Treaty was read and explained to the Maori Chiefs by Williams before the signing. (“no Chief is to sign this treaty unless they fully understand it.”) were the instructions from Hobson.
        Sir Hugh Kawharu’s back translation from Maori to English was in 1989.
        The English version used by the Waitangi Tribunal today is the rogue James Freeman version. Used because it has untruths that suit the Tribunal.
        Happy to be corrected.
        
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        March 11, 2025 3:58pm
- Handyman
  
  I’ve always said the principles bill should have been called “Honour the Treaty Bill”. (If just for the fun of seeing TPM marching with “Honour the Treaty” placards).
  When the left propose a bill they line up lots of “independent” third parties to provide soft media coverage. Where was the marketing plan for the principles bill?
  
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  March 11, 2025 4:01pm
kiwimike

Yeah right
So why did the Chiefs cede they sovereignty ??
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March 11, 2025 9:20am
- PurplePen
  
  Guarantee that they won’t be annexed by the French or USA-ians or other nations that at the time were looking at NZ; protection from the Crown that they won’t be wiped out and eaten by a marauding tribe; assurance that all those in NZ including Maori will have the same rights and duties, yes, duties as British citizens which meant all, including settlers had to obey British law; assurance that they can do whatever they want on their own property and with their own people. Can’t have most of that without the Crown being able to have sovereignty.
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:09pm
  - MCōs
    
    British must have done a pretty good job talking up these menacing aliens who were gathering just out of sight over the horizon that 99% of Māori had never heard of!
    
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    March 11, 2025 4:31pm
    - PurplePen
      
      Maori were trading with Australia and travelled to England and back.
      
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      March 12, 2025 4:59pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Protection as British Citizens.
  
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  March 11, 2025 3:59pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Why Treaty Settlements Will Never End.
This is after the interview with Richard Prebble. Many claims have been settled many times.
If a governing Party brings racial harmony and peace to a Country, it greatly improves their chance if re-election. This is the game Luxon is playing. Thing is it is not their money.

Video 11.48.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_hyyHSn9Yg
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March 11, 2025 9:29am
Scooter

Luxon’s latest interview on Mike Hosking again shows he is terrified of anything Maori and won’t have an opinion. When asked about the Waitangi Tribunal and the Richard Prebble resignation it was “we have work underway” then after nervous giggles he goes onto talk about everything else they are doing but the elephant in the room he obviously doesn’t want to talk about is the divide in NZ and where we are going. I think this is the main problem dragging him down in the polls, not the economy which he loves to talk about but the social divide.
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March 11, 2025 9:43am
- Gravelroad
  
  Perhaps Mr Luxon might consider talking with someone like Richie McCaw about how to build a successful team of professional players from different backgrounds and experience.
  You know, just everyday people who are successful in their endeavours due to their own hard work – rather than just from the corporate boardroom scenario.
  If the captain of the All Blacks giggled nervously during a radio interview and wasn’t upfront with the answers for perceived team failures, how long would it be before the selectors decided it was time to take some action?
  
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  March 11, 2025 10:48am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Rubbish, i purposely listened to the repay, for some weird reason Hosking was trying to talk over him, He was asked about the Waitangi tribunal, he said they are doing work on that right now, how [Mod – calm the posts down] did he hide away, if Hosking had shut his mouth he told us what he wanted, I purposely listened waiting for it was a trainwreck, well no it was not
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:22am
Jethrod

This morning I received from Horizon the results of a poll on “top priorities for the government this year”.
I looked at it and then concluded that it was way to complicated. The majority of the 1017 people would have switched off after 5 minutes and then answered randomly, so they could get away and back to their cup of tea, iPad puzzle or their life.
https://www.horizonpoll.co.nz/page/713/new-zealand?gtid=fa8b884d-d51c-4a91-ae1a-b0301b128323j
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March 11, 2025 10:27am
- cmm
  
  Can someone draw me a picture explaining how “Law and Order” and “Reducing Crime” are not the same thing?
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:28am
David Garrett

Nicola Willis has announced that Luxon will lead National at the next election. So someone has started taking the numbers for her.

Denial that a coup is imminent is almost always the first sign that one is pending.
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March 11, 2025 11:09am
- Jethrod
  
  National changing their leader now would have REALLY dire consequences.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:21am
  - David Garrett
    
    Jethrod: I disagree. Changing leaders weeks or even months out from an election is a disaster – Look what happened to Judith Collins?
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:41am
    - septic skeptic
      
      You could also look at what happened when Ardern replaced Little. And maybe what happens after Carney replaced Trudeau! Even Hipkins gained some traction replacing Ardern.
      
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      March 11, 2025 12:04pm
    - cmm
      
      Quite.
      It only “worked” with our beloved Cindy because Angry Andy was a complete and utter disaster.
      
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      March 11, 2025 1:27pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Yes, and she was ‘Oh so sweet, caring about the children – oh and that beautiful smile” – Uuurgh.
        
        5 1
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        March 11, 2025 2:09pm
      - MCōs
        
        Some say Bill English wasn’t so flash either
        
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        March 11, 2025 2:22pm
      - Jules99
        
        Media gushed in appreciation of her as well. Even before Covid the largely female press pack adored her.
        
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        March 11, 2025 3:14pm
      - cmm
        
        “Some say Bill English wasn’t so flash either”
        
        Some say all sorts of shit.
        
        Bill English beat Cindy.
        
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        March 11, 2025 5:07pm
- septic skeptic
  
  “Only the true messiah denies his divinity”
  “What sort of chance does that give me? Alright I AM THE MESSIAH”
  “SEE! He IS the messiah!”
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:23am
- cmm
  
  Given they are both Blue Greens (or is that Green Blues?) I would expect Willis is not going to shank Luxon.
  But I suspect there are some others that are a bit frustrated and Luxon would be wise to keep his eyes open in the shower.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:26am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: Lord Montrose – Doug Graham – was IIRC a loyal supporter of Jim Bolger. The good Lord was the one tasked with informing Bolger on his return from an overseas trip that Jenny Shipley had the numbers to topple him.
    
    Luxon would be wise to stay in the country for the foreseeable.
    
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    March 11, 2025 11:31am
    - goNZ1
      
      so Luxon and Peters will be away next week and Seymour will have the stage…. could get interesting
      
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      March 11, 2025 11:36am
      - Ghost
        
        Seymour was acting PM two weeks ago, was it interesting then?
        
        4 5
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        March 11, 2025 11:37am
      - David Garrett
        
        Ghost: No-one knows better than me that a week is a long time in politics.
        
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        March 11, 2025 11:57am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Seymour has been the pm about three times, WTF could be interesting FGS? The times he has been PM there has not been a peep from him
        
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        March 11, 2025 12:50pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    If there was a change of leadership, doesn’t the second in command (Willis) usually go to?
    But my question is, who in National is better than Luxon and could replace him?
    
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    March 11, 2025 1:54pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  It needs to be done ASAP, for National and the coalition.
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:47am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Yes, but they also need to grow a pair and start making meaningful cuts and changes to the woke, leftist, maorified public service.
    
    6 1
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    March 11, 2025 12:09pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Nothing will happen in the Public Sector, re Maorification under Luxon.
      Luxon is a Maori activist, face it. He is because anything else and he will be branded “racist.” He is a very scared man – just listen to his word salads, worse than Ardern.
      
      See goNZ1 below!!
      
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      March 11, 2025 4:05pm
goNZ1

Viewing the post-cab presser yesterday was a text book example of the PMs delivery –
Reporter – why is your poll rating going down?
Luxon ” what I would say to you is blah bah , growth,blah blah ,kiwis doing it tough,blah blah.
Reporter – why did you let Bayley go on holiday?
Luxon – what I would say to you is he needed to clear his head by climbing Mt Everest,not something I wouldnt like to do (nervous giggle to Bishop) Rinse and repeat 10 times to further questions)
Reporter – why are school lunches hurting the kiddies and halal too ?
Luxon – what i would say to you is we are working incredibly hard,Seymour is working incredibly hard, he phoned the incredibly upset parents who are working incredibly hard like all Kiwis, the answer is more growth blah blah ,Auckland seminars etc etc.

to Luxons advisors – can you PLEASE get him to stop trotting out the ”what I would say to you” line to questions AND PLEASE get him to stop using ” we are working incredibly hard” line. I will be watching at 2pm to see if you told him!
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March 11, 2025 11:19am
- cmm
  
  Please tell me you’re taking the piss and he didn’t say that crap about climbing Everest to clear your head.
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:22pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No he didn’t, he suggested as every other minister who has had to resign, he needed to take sometime to get his head right, and he has chosen to do this at this time, and he was not every asked about school lunches
    
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    March 11, 2025 12:53pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Watched him talking to media yesterday, never got asked about school lunches
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:52pm
Jack5

Southland electorate’s MP, Joseph Mooney, is in Stuff complaining about lack of flights between Wellington and Queenstown, and having to go home via Auckland.

Why doesn’t he go via Christchurch, or Dunedin, or Invercargill?

Mooney focuses on the Queenstown part of the Southland electorate. If available, a trip via Christchurch to Invercargill would let him drive home through the territory of his electorate.

Southland electorate includes big chunks of farmland Southland and the towns of Gore and Winton.

International tourists like Queenstown, but not everyone in his Southland electorate is as enthusiastic. Even folk in the electorate’s nearby Central Otago towns of Alexandra and Clyde joke about the booming tourism town’s aggressive business drive.

Southland’s deserted churches are being trucked to rich folks’ pleasure plots in the Queenstown region — from Christ to Chrysus, as it were — but Presbyterian conservatism lingers on in the Far South grasslands.

Pity a Southland-electorate MP. Representing both Queenstown business and traditional Southlanders.

Then there’s the growing tourism-serving working class in Queenstown. Many or most of the workers may not have residential qualification to vote – yet.

Tourism growth is on Queenstown’s side. Southland is also growing economically, though, and there’s the Joker Hell card, any super quake popping the Southern Alpine chain.

Mooney followed into National’s likely truest-blue electorate two young MPs who in turn were fired by the party. Todd Barclay (October 2014 to September 2017) was dropped after an incident involving tape-recording his staff. Hamish Walker (November 2017 to October 2020) went after Covid details were leaked.

The next general election, at latest, will be 21 months and eight days from today.

Southland electorate:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/electorate-profiles/southland-electorate-profile/

Joseph Mooney’s long trips from Parliament to Queenstown:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360606189/lack-queenstown-flights-causes-cascade-pain-businesses
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March 11, 2025 11:46am
cmm

Along with dudges, coroners are right up their with their brainless thinking.

Wellington should, apparently, fence off the whole waterfront to prevent idiots walking off the edge and drowning.

Wow.

I know that would take a long time, so perhaps as an interim measure they can put up signs saying:

Warning: Water.
Water is wet, drowny stuff.
Stay at least 10 metres away.

Maori and English of course – with video billboards saying it in sign language.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360609717/coroner-recommends-permanent-fencing-wellington-waterfront
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March 11, 2025 12:20pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  We are now truly a clown country…..people drown apparently according to a coroner then we need fencing but if reported in the MSM they die from a water related incident……
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:28pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  https://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/358317620
  
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  March 11, 2025 12:50pm
- Don Beckett
  
  Or, “Watch out for the hydrogen dioxide – it can kill.” 😉
  
  3 1
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  March 11, 2025 2:11pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    dihydrogen monoxide.
    
    4 2
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    March 11, 2025 4:20pm
    - rangitoto
      
      It’s the hydroxylic acid that gets you in the end.
      
      3 0
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      March 11, 2025 4:56pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Stand corrected 🙁
      
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      March 11, 2025 5:53pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Steve Hughes, Health and Safety:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3afoMFEhRc
  
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  March 11, 2025 4:28pm
  - PeeJay
    
    Brilliant! As I don’t know how to add links I was hoping someone would post this classic!
    
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    March 11, 2025 4:55pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Right click the URL Page address) copy it, and paste it in your Kiwiblog post.
      Steve Hughes. “Is your bike wet?” “yeah” “you’re the wrong bit mate!”
      
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      March 11, 2025 6:18pm
cmm

I get the internal email messages sent to all the employees at one of the companies I do occasional work for.

There’s a warning that there are male plumbers working in the women’s toilets while a stand up urinal is being fitted.
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March 11, 2025 1:31pm
- hookerphil
  
  Please tell me you are in Wellington,
  
  6 1
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  March 11, 2025 2:20pm
- greybeard
  
  Are they also installing tampon dispensers in the mens’ ?
  
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  March 11, 2025 3:37pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  There must be a way to flag the company without identifying yourself. Stuff like that is usually the result of cowardice. The vast majority of the company would be against it but the majority won’t band together to defeat the minority dingbats pushing this crap.
  
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  March 11, 2025 4:04pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Urinals, a single porcelain one or one of those long stainless steel troughs?
  
  3 2
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  March 11, 2025 4:34pm
  - Jethrod
    
    I think someone is taking the pi…… mmmmm, maybe not!
    
    6 0
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    March 11, 2025 5:26pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      I am.
      
      3 1
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      March 11, 2025 6:21pm
- rangitoto
  
  No litter box for anyone identifying as a cat? What a disgrace.
  
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  March 11, 2025 5:06pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    That was out at a school in Albany.
    
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    March 11, 2025 6:22pm
Ghost

Did Biden not sign his executive orders

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/rule-of-law/are-bidens-executive-orders-valid-when-signed-by-a-machine/
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March 11, 2025 1:33pm
- cmm
  
  According to this wikipedia article, autopens have been used by many presidents of all stripes.
  
  If he did so it would appear to be a non-issue (especially when compared with many things which are glaring issues).
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopen
  
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  March 11, 2025 1:39pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Highly likely.
  
  Biden did not know when he was going to the toilet, didn’t know left from right, and didn’t know black from white – stating on one occasion that he was the first black US president.
  
  The certainty that he knew everything he signed and what they were for is very very low.
  
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  March 11, 2025 2:19pm
- mandk
  
  No, he didn’t.
  
  Jill took his crayons away.
  
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  March 11, 2025 2:38pm
- MCōs
  
  Bob Jones once said he didn’t read everything he signed.
  I suppose that’s something similar. Either way these guys are responsible for the results
  Biden may or may not have been fully aware of his actions.
  I’m pretty sure Trump, while he may be, certainly doesn’t think things through
  
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  March 11, 2025 4:05pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    MASH. Radar says “please sign here Sir”
    “What is it for?”
    “Don’t worry, I will fill it in later.”
    
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    March 11, 2025 4:37pm
MCōs

Steve
You have a direct line to the White House
https://x.com/donwinslow/status/1897063228427133138?s=46&t=XZLqGbhN-xeYzprhTaktsg
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March 11, 2025 2:30pm
- Inandout
  
  MC, so many false quotes out there.
  
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  March 11, 2025 5:46pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Did you read the comments?
  Uptick for trying hard anyway.
  MAGA!
  
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  March 11, 2025 6:24pm
Steve Otto N Shore

50 Wins in 50 Days.

The Whitehouse.

https://mailchi.mp/mail.whitehouse.gov/21525-the-white-house-newsletter-13569828?e=7cf72e9565
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March 11, 2025 2:58pm
Sparrow

One down two to go. One of the three suppliers to school meals has declared insolvency. Maybe a strategic move before being sued for the quality of the food. Seymour was warned about their poor records by officials and others before contract given to Compass. Seymour ignored advice because he is a smug arrogant shit. The polls are reflecting what people think of him. What a fiasco that did not need to have happened.
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March 11, 2025 3:39pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Shocking. If the other two fall over the parents will have to get off their arses!
  That is shocking as well. Parents making lunches? Heaven forbid.
  
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  March 11, 2025 6:26pm
Ghost

Don’t see the point in charging him when he will just get let off again. Maybe this time will be different…..

Disgraced New Zealand business tycoon Ron Brierley has been charged with child sex offences three years after a court ruled he was too old and sick to serve time in prison.

Article
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March 11, 2025 4:44pm
MCōs

I see ex president Duterte has been arrested in the Philippines on account of his brutal drug crackdown that resulted in numerous extra judicial executions
I discussed this with a Filipino friend of mine at the time and he was all for the killings, much to my surprise.
A similar crackdown was put into effect by Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra previously and about 2-3k people were killed. The police had a blacklist of people who could be shot on sight. It transpired that not all those on the list were involved in drugs, some were rivals of others not on the list and so on.
After all the carnage was brought to a stop not a steric of difference had been brought about to the drug flow
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March 11, 2025 5:18pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360611143/new-report-highlights-dramatic-growth-maori-economy
“Maori economy”.
Another term for “Maori companies created with NZ taxpayers’ money, topped-up on a never-ending basis, and which don’t pay tax”.
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March 11, 2025 6:37pm
Sean Rush

Wow, just doing some research on why the media report that the principles are Partnership, Protection and Participation and always fail to mention the Crown’s right to govern, which is the foundation of Principle 1 of The Treaty Principles Bill. Copilot referred me to a Kiwiblog post by the Platform in 2022. One reason why is that the PIJF requires them to say that with reference to the Framework above mentioned. It explains that the underpinning justification, goes back to Wai 1080 of 2014. This is that the Northland tribes determination that those iwi/hapu never ceded sovereignty. This contrasts to the Court of Appeals determination in ‘Lands” in 1987, that the question of sovereignty was conclusively determined by the gazetting of the treaty in London in 1840 and the concession by some iwi who said the same in their prior claims to the Waitangi Tribunal.

The “Framework” document mentioned (link below) gets around all that by saying Maori weren’t really involved in those court decisions (? – they were) and that only the Maori text is relevant (that’s not what the The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 says). It is highly radical stuff, and sets out why media should be using te reo, training requirements etc. Who at NZ On Air approved this and why did our media swallow it without blinking?

https://d3r9t6niqlb7tz.cloudfront.net/media/documents/2022_03_Irirangi_te_Motu_NZ_on_Air_Te_Tiriti_framework_only_for_News_Media.pdf
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March 11, 2025 6:37pm
Ghost

I just went to MetService to see what the weather for tomorrow is “estimated” to be. On their weather it had 3 sleeps, 2 sleeps. Oh shit don’t tell me it’s Christmas already. No, then what holiday is coming up. Surely I’ve missed something important that is coming. Yawn, it’s a warriors game.
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March 11, 2025 8:32pm
- MCōs
  
  I detest the expression x number of sleeps. I also loathe the made up word ‘threepeat’ and the way Americans apply ‘dynasty’ to any sports team that’s won one of their domestic competitions two or more times in a row.
  In cricket a six is now a maximum unless they’ve sold the naming rights to KFC
  
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  March 11, 2025 11:53pm

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