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March 12, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 12 March 2025

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NeverMindTheBollocks

Apropos of recent discussion about refugee destination shopping, I see we have given asylum to an “aspiring” Sri Lankan politician (translation: not an MP). Leaving aside the merits of her case, a simple Google scan tells you that there are no direct flights between Colombo and Auckland. The most direct flight goes via Singapore; other flights are routed via Bangkok and Melbourne. Obviously, there are short flights from Sri Lanka to India, and direct flights to many other countries.

So why is she here, as opposed to the many other safe havens closer to her home? The Refugee Tribunal does not seem to have considered this question.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/544505/female-politician-fled-to-new-zealand-after-graveside-threat
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March 12, 2025 8:00am
- wsk12345
  
  I’d take a bet that she runs on the Green party list at the next election.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:25am
  - sirknz
    
    Then goes on holiday back to Sri Lanka shortly after getting in, despite saying that she won’t ever go back.
    
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    March 12, 2025 3:38pm
  - Ghost
    
    I bet she won’t. Refugees don’t get residency straight away so she likely won’t even be able to vote then.
    
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    March 12, 2025 3:54pm
    - Countrygirl
      
      If she learns te reo quickly she will be a shoe in.
      
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      March 12, 2025 4:16pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  While I have agreed with much of what Trump has said and done in his first term and now his second I cant agree with him on tariffs. IMHO just as a country cant tax its way to prosperity it cant tariff its way either.
  Tariffs punish the country they are imposed on and also the country that imposes them. Consumers in the tariffing country pay higher prices leading to inflation and protect their ineffecient producers. They are no winners its a lose lose situation as Trump will find out. His citizens wont reward him for imposing higher prices leading to higher inflation and the West like NZ will also suffer.
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:05am
  - Grunter
    
    Totally agree.
    
    Whilst some of Trump’s bluster is a negotiation tactic (a very dangerous one), he is still imposing tariffs that are now escalating into massive trade wars. This has no winners.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:22am
  - freemark
    
    I import occasionally car-parts from USA. I pay GST on them on the way in. Is that in effect not a tariff?
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:13pm
- MCōs
  
  Almost certainly if they tried to claim asylum in Bangkok they’d be sent straight back where they came from
  Last week some Uighur refugees were returned to China after ten years in detention
  
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  March 12, 2025 12:00pm
  - PurplePen
    
    And was Thailand punished or the worse for wear for this. So why do we bend over backwards.
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:28pm
    - MCōs
      
      There was an outcry, but China calls the shots basically.
      
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      March 12, 2025 7:16pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Sri Lanka is not China, and the failed MP she allegedly insulted does not have the pull of President Xi.
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:15pm
Scott

I just came upon this article from the Right Minds blog about the demise of Mount Egmont:

https://www.rightminds.nz/2025/02/mt-egmont-collective-redress-national-shame

So the names Mount Egmont and the Egmont National Park will now disappear. The new name Mount Taranaki will also disappear, now Taranaki Maunga.

The Taranaki Maunga redress Bill makes for sobering reading:

https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2023/0293/latest/whole.html#LMS899476

Essentially the bill totally capitulates to the pre Christian pagan Maori world view and gives personhood to the mountain.
It also requires a partnership between the Crown and the local iwi in managing the mountain and the national park. It also means there will be an abject apology forthcoming from the crown.

It also lays all the blame for the historical situation on the crown with the Maori being completely innocent, they did nothing wrong and the land was unjustly confiscated and the Maori in 1860 were not to blame for anything. Those of us who have studied the history of the Taranaki wars may think differently.

In 1860 the Waitara Maoris defeated a rag tag group of a few hundred settlers and troops that advanced on the Waitara pa. New Plymouth was surrounded and the women and children were evacuated by sea. At the time it was by no means certain that the settlers would prevail but many of the women refused to be evacuated. They would prevail together or they would perish together.

The Maori who fought in the battle were very excited and some of them who had come from the Waikato went back to the Waikato with booty, soldiers jackets and ammunition belts they had plundered. The other young men of the Waikato besieged their chief to be able to go and fight in the war, “for the honour of the iwi and the pleasure of killing the pakeha”.

Many on this blog go on about Luxon being weak and woke but I have to inform you that this bill was passed unanimously by our parliamentary representatives.

This bill is a total sell out to Maori revisionist history and the pre-Christian pagan Maori world view and in my opinion is craven and weak. And everyone in parliament voted for it! All of them.
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March 12, 2025 8:03am
- pdm
  
  An impertinent question.
  
  Who pays when Maori want to move it back to its allegedly original home among Mounts Ruapehu, Ngaruahoe and Tongariro?
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:28am
  - David Garrett
    
    Pdm: That’s a perfectly good question, and one with precedent. The mountain sacred to the Ngai Tahu is Mt Cook, aka Aoraki. Presumably it moved with the iwi when they relocated from the Kapiti area.
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:41am
    - pdm
      
      I did not know that myth DG.
      
      I learn something most days by visiting the GD.
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:00am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Myth?!?
        
        Are you sure it’s not Maori science?
        
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        March 12, 2025 1:32pm
    - kowtow
      
      Same with the Pupu Springs over Takaka way .
      
      Not terribly long ago divers could enjoy them , then suddenly they became so ‘sacred’ you’re enjoined not to even dip a finger in .
      
      Oh and another aspect of the springs are the old colonial gold workings around the immediate area .
      Wasn’t too sacred to be dug up and redirected by the miners who clearly wouldn’t have needed any permission from the local Maoris , as there just about weren’t any , old Te Rauparaha having ravaged his way through most of them.
      
      From the DOC website ;
      
      “Do not touch the water
      The waters of Te Waikoropupū Springs, including Fish Creek and Springs River are closed to all forms of contact.
      
      No fishing, swimming, diving, wading, boating, filling of drinking water containers, or any other activity where parts of the body or equipment contact the water.”
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:25am
      - imalwaysright
        
        That is bloody ridiculous. Its a spring that flows outward to wherever it goes and is used by animals, plants and birds etc.
        What’s wrong with people having a swim or taking some water?
        “Clean Green NZ- Don’t Touch !”
        
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        March 12, 2025 12:30pm
      - Northshoredoc
        
        I dived in there years ago, the reason it’s closed to all forms of recreation is the concern about the introduction of invasive plants and algae that would wreck the springs.
        
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        March 12, 2025 2:01pm
      - kowtow
        
        NSD
        
        Tell that to DOC then , this is off their website.
        
        ‘The waters of Te Waikoropupū Springs, including Fish Creek and Springs River, are closed to all forms of contact (including fishing, swimming, diving, wading, boating and drinking the water) to safeguard water quality and to respect cultural values.’
        
        I wonder how they close all bird contact .
        
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        March 12, 2025 2:57pm
  - rouppe
    
    My vague recollection of the story is that Ruapehu, Ngaruahoe and Tongariro were chasing Taranaki because of some offense or other.
    
    Ruapehu, Ngaruahoe and Tongariro stopped there and Taranaki kept going.
    
    I think all four originated closer to Whakaari.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:24am
    - Jethrod
      
      Daddy Taupo exerted control over 3 of the 4 maunga. Those 3 just became pimples on the flanks of the great Taupo.
      
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      March 12, 2025 10:00am
  - Countrygirl
    
    Who do you think will pay? We the tax payer of course, preferably white taxpayer.
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:19pm
  - PurplePen
    
    It would have been better if the British empire made no treaty at all. Tribes don’t or didn’t have such things between them and hence their is no claim between tribes today for all the ill-doing between them and eating them, taking their land, their taonga, etc. Maybe we need a tribunal to allow tribes to take grievances against other tribes.
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:33pm
- Grunter
  
  “Many on this blog go on about Luxon being weak and woke but I have to inform you that this bill was passed unanimously by our parliamentary representatives.”
  
  – Yep, I have come to the conclusion that the ethno-state is now baked in. Maori paganism, Maori snake oil potions, unelected tribal rule, the lot, are now all accepted.
  
  Of course, this all comes with a heavy blanket of socialism and unlimited handouts.
  
  The only outcome now is chaos. When does that point become reality? No one knows, but it is inevitable.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:55am
- Matt Long
  
  New Zealand is once again world famous for woke stupidity.
  https://x.com/Kate03986/status/1898658688170369429
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:01am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    I covered that a few days ago, This Will Have NZ Lefties Grinding Their Teeth, and sure enough there has been a bite.
    
    “Bomber” Bradbury over at The Psychic Scream, as he laments one of his long-time heroes having fallen, WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Open Letter to Bill Maher from a New Zealand fan regarding his appalling attack on Māori.
    
    It’s filled with much angsty cringe but this is the cringiest from a Super Atheist:
    
    I’m not a religious person Bill, but when my daughter speaks a prayer in Māori at my own table before we eat, it connects me more deeply to being a New Zealander than anything else.
    
    😂🤢😂🤢😂🤢😂🤢😂🤢
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:11am
    - David Garrett
      
      Tom: Bradbury has a child?
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:29am
      - Inandout
        
        DG, some ‘bombers’ apparently do.
        https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/baby-bomb-kara-hoppe-ma-mft/1137392882
        
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        March 12, 2025 9:45am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      Maher leans more left than right too…..you know a scenario is bad when reasonable lefties call it out. Bradbury is a child in comparison to Maher…..
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:42am
    - Frankie Lee
      
      That Bradbury quote just epitomises one of the things I find most insufferable about Liberal New Zealand.
      
      He says he’s an atheist and is always fashionably scornful of Christianity, but falls to his knees in shuddering admiration when it comes to Maori (or indeed any “Indigenous”) spirituality. The double standard royally irks me.
      
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      March 12, 2025 12:14pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Good to hear a different view from someone who does not give a fuck about this nonsense.
    Tell it like it is Bill Mayer.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:32am
- Yabster
  
  I think we are all in lala land if we think any politician is going to stop this kind of racist bs- they are all weak and woke.
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:05am
- Scooter
  
  We are a joke overseas.
  
  Bill Maher. The Mountain & The Maori.
  
  https://x.com/HicksKiwi/status/1898537122489082075?t=PrK7JU7O0_GkLoqCzA80rQ&s=19
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:16am
Michael Sommerville

The best quote from Richard Prebble’s article in the NZHerald this morning.

“Always assume that politicians mean what they say, especially when it is stupid.”
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March 12, 2025 8:03am
Tomtoddy

Roger Pielke annoys me because he keeps a foot in both camps on climate change. He is firmly in the “fossil fuels are dangerously heating the planet” camp while he produces evidence to the contrary. Today he copied some useful stats.

Quote: “Our lifestyle in a first world country (are we still a first world country or have we slipped into second world status?) requires an average of 13 barrels of oil per person per year. What about the other seven billion people? They want what we have. The other seven billion people, on average, consume only three barrels of oil per person per year versus our 13. Africans average less than one barrel”.

The African stat should ring alarm bells, particularly for our grandchildren. Africa will not sit around listening to lectures on saving the planet by leaving its coal and oil in the ground. Deprive them of access to their resources by starving them of capital and applying trade sanctions will eventually awaken the giant and they will use whatever means they have to settle the score. Most are already in a torrid hot climate – another couple of degrees will not slow their anger and they know how to swing a machete.

I suppose the elitists consider themselves safe from barbarism and will continue to lecture Africans from their ivory towers.
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March 12, 2025 8:04am
- G152
  
  Until they have to import African coal and oil to keep their ivory tower habitable
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:31am
- cmm
  
  There are numerous issues with this 13 barrels of oil idea. The major one is that this is not used uniformly across all nations. Blaming NZ because we just happen to first world is ridiculous.
  
  Many countries use a very large % of their oil for heating. Something we hardly do in NZ.
  
  Sure, Africa is a low oil user, but they use a lot of oil derived products – many made elsewhere: food is oil/gas derived – especially if it is made using fertilizers made from oil/gas. When a sack of foreign aid food rocks up in Africa are they counting the oil used to make that?
  
  Bottom line is that if you stopped oil production a lot of people would die. And a very large % of those would be brown. The first victim would be African babies.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:40am
  - artemisia
    
    There will be a difference between urban and rural ‘barrels’. National average fairly meaningless if it covers both urban dwellers with jobs and high rise apartments and others not so much.
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:53am
    - cmm
      
      Yup, certainly.
      
      A very large % of our oil usage is in agriculture – the vast majority of which is exported.
      
      If we’re going to account properly then that usage should end up with the consumers not us.
      
      The same goes for all the inputs that China etc use to make exported products (power, plastics, steel, …). If you accounted those according to their final users then China’s oil per capita would reduce significantly.
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:32am
- David Garrett
  
  Tom: The second world is – or rather was – the communist world, not some group of countries whose development was less than the first world. Yours is an oft repeated mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:46am
  - cmm
    
    While that is certainly is true, there is definitely a need for some sort of phrase for this purpose.
    
    It is hard to think of Greece, Portugal and Brazil etc as first world – yet they are certainly not third world.
    
    Perhaps it is time to let go and redeploy the second world term for this purpose?
    
    Times change. Words change.
    
    When I was at school we were required to write telephone – not phone. If you wanted to write phone you had to write it as ‘phone to show it was shortened.
    If you wanted to make that English teacher smile then you wrote ‘bus or omnibus.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:28am
    - David Garrett
      
      Cmm: Fair point…especially now there is no “communist world” but rather just a handful of widely scattered countries still adhering to that failed ideology
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:32am
    - PurplePen
      
      I’d add to that getting rid of the area known as the Middle East. East of where, from who’s perspective. Rhetorical. Do people that live their think of themselves as being from the Middle East of an old empire.
      
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      March 12, 2025 4:38pm
      - cmm
        
        East from the Greenwich Meridian of course.
        
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        March 12, 2025 4:58pm
artemisia

Centrist indicating a take no prisoners approach. Also a likely indication for the future of NZME.

https://centrist.nz/state-broadcaster-in-climate-reporting-scandal-hides-evidence-of-massive-heatwave-that-dwarfs-recent-hottest-years/
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March 12, 2025 8:07am
- Philview
  
  I remember hot dry summers in the 1990s where we frequently had to preserve water and had restrictions. There were frequent news reports of dusty dry farms and half starved sheep. I think it was much hotter in that decade than this one.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:17am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Another tale of “hottest temperature eva”, and then we discover that no-one bothered to check records from most of the 20th Century.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:17am
  - cmm
    
    Same with the hysteria over cyclones and erosion.
    
    Erosion has been going on for ages and is caused by many things – both human induced and not.
    
    Blaming this on sea level rise etc is crazy.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVKShNxQw9U&t=244s
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:52am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Mission Bay in Auckland gets topped up with sand now and again. The special people have a rave about where the sand comes from. Different tribal areas I guess.
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:51am
      - PeeJay
        
        I was reading about the Gold Coast aftermath and how they are going to immediately repair and replenish the beaches that were damaged by the recent cyclone / storm. Repair works include getting a barge to dredge up the sand and pump it back onto the beaches. Their goal is to get the beaches back in shape by Easter.
        
        No consultation, no dodgy koha, no mumbo-jumbo, just get on with it. Make a plan, get stuck in.
        
        Can you imagine something like that happening here? Ha. Snowballs chance in hell! If any of our beaches in tourist spots were similarly damaged, we’d probably still be talking about what to do in ten years time!
        
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        March 12, 2025 11:07am
    - Gravelroad
      
      Ha. Back in the 1960’s up our way, there was huge concern about erosion in the high country.
      So the environmental powers-that-be at that time came up with a nifty solution.
      Plant pinus contorta (aka wilding pines) by aerial seeding.
      Carefully trying to solve one alleged problem by creating another worse one.
      
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      March 12, 2025 10:20am
      - gravedodger
        
        Not wanting to be pedantic Gravel, any wind blown tree seed leads to the “Wilding” description.
        Around Queenstown it is largely Oregon pines.
        The Amuri range has mainly Nigra and Contorta, Radiata not so much. Again for the Mckenzie basin Oregon is a major threat.
        
        Wait until Ngai Tahu plant Molesworth then it will end with Pine forest to the Kaikoura Coast.
        
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        March 12, 2025 11:00am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That is what pisses me off when media rave when Alexandra touches 30 degrees, when i was a kid, the temps in Alex could be mid to even high 30’s for days or weeks at a time, so sick of hearing this it’s the hottest ever bullshit.
  
  I think the highest it has got in Alexnadra this year is 31
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:38am
  - Grunter
    
    G – be careful, Luxon will tell you to “Go read a book! There is no room for climate deniers in the 21st Century”
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:57am
    - Don Beckett
      
      I remember back in the ’50’s, during the odd summer we would hear that schools in Christchurch had closed, because the temperature was 100 deg. F which is 38 de. C
      Even in the ’60’s in my youth I recall many long hot summers – oh for those lazy hazy days again, without the constant bullshit about “burning up”.
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:39am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Where did i mention climate change? i stated what use to be the norm in alexandra
      
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      March 12, 2025 12:42pm
      - Grunter
        
        “…..so sick of hearing this it’s the hottest ever bullshit”
        
        C’mon G – even your Luxon love affair doesn’t hide that one.
        
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        March 12, 2025 1:54pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Grunter
        
        Worry about your own crap, I am stating fact, and nowhere has Luxon said what I am saying is lies
        
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        March 13, 2025 10:45am
Bridgenag

The MAHA Podcast: We are Being Manipulated
“I was used” -one to listen to over coffee as it is a long interview but very interesting.

From the You Tube promo…”In this explosive interview, Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of mRNA technology, reveals shocking details about Big Pharma, government agencies, and the hidden agendas shaping global health. He breaks down the real dangers of mRNA technology, the corruption within the FDA, CDC, and NIH, and the disturbing influence of corporate and government forces over science and medicine.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/the-maha-podcast-we-are-being-manipulated?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 12, 2025 8:08am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Winston says the public sector is woke.

Thumbs up if you agree, thumbs down if you disagree.
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March 12, 2025 8:15am
- PeeJay
  
  In other news, water is wet…..
  
  So Winston says the public sector is woke. Big whoop, tell us something we didn’t know!
  
  And his big plan is? Not very much. Sure, there is a NZF members bill that still has to actually be drawn in the ballot, but there is no gaurauntee it will be drawn and passed – it’s reasonable to conclude that the entire purpose of the members bill is that it gives him the opportunity to bang the drum come next election. If he wanted to actually do something about this, then he could have already included this in his coalition agreement.
  
  If only he had been in a position of power to do something about this before…….maybe like being the Deputy PM in 2017 to 2020, or Deputy PM since late 2023.
  
  Totally agree that the public sector is woke, but pull the other one if you think Winston is serious about actually doing anything about it other than using it is an opportunity to drum up support in the next election.
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:18am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hipkins is saying nonsense, he said Peters cannot give one instance of this happening, even though in the interview with Peters he pointed to a woman getting a job because she was a woman, the more qualified husband missed out because of male and white, so they moved to Aussie, as i said, every time Hipkins opens his mouth he looks like a fool
  
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  March 12, 2025 12:45pm
artemisia

John Tamihere is innocent of all allegations, and cannot understand why Whanau Ora contracts were awarded elsewhere. Must be racist. Not sure how that works given the successful tenderers.

Maybe his proposal just wasn’t good enough to win.

While Tamihere said he wasn’t given a reason for losing the contract, he firmly believed it was part of the Government’s attack on Maori and Maori-led solutions.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/john-tamihere-life-in-the-public-eye-ive-been-under-investigation-for-35-years/A7Z3TZPTTZGGHBY7UNTKFORCD4/
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March 12, 2025 8:17am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  But if it is an attack on Maori why have new contracts gone to Ngai Tahu for the South Island and Ngati Toa for the lower North Island?
  
  Could it be that they put in better tender documents?
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:21am
  - Grunter
    
    It kinda sounds like the tribes are reigniting their historic grievances…..with each other.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:00am
    - kowtow
      
      It kinda sonds like this govt is divvying up the country along Ti Three Waters tribal boundaries.
      
      Entrenching the previous govts boundaries/agenda , slowly slowly .
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:33am
    - Paulus
      
      Were not, historically, Tribes eliminating each other as standard practice.
      What’s for Tea !
      So what is new ?
      
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      March 12, 2025 2:02pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Could be but probably the govt just wanted to take it away from Tamihere and this was the easiest way to do it. No reason given, so that the reasoning cannot be challenged.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:05am
    - Don Beckett
      
      It’s not unusual for any organisation to call for new tenders after a given period.
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:42am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Especially since the 2 original contracts for Maori just fell into the laps of Maori Party folk….and were never placed for open tender.
        
        The North Island contract went to: John Tamihere’s lot
        
        The South Island contract went to: Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu which was run by Helen Leahy for the first 7 years….(2014-2022)
        https://huia.co.nz/blogs/author/helen-leahy?srsltid=AfmBOoqHIwJm02ZJg1R3k7XVZgivybN93LyB7xzWmWmTAHLIfTUnLcIq
        
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        March 12, 2025 1:42pm
  - rouppe
    
    Tamihere is a crook. Everyone knows that, even if evidence that would satisfy our woke judges is difficult to come by.
    
    The easiest way to ditch him was this way.
    
    Whether the nz taxpayer will be any better off is another matter.
    
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    March 12, 2025 9:28am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He is certainly protesting to much, a sign of his crookedness
      
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      March 12, 2025 9:58am
- Swifty
  
  Plating the victim is baked into his schtick.
  
  He relies on it. He needs it. He couldn’t operate without it.
  
  Even when, as in this instance, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever given the nature of those who were successful.
  
  Frankly, he is lying. And our media just let him get away with it time and time again.
  
  He lies with impunity.
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:39am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    He is no leader that I would be willing to follow…
    
    “I take no responsibility. I’m allowed in this democracy and as a Māori, to be politically active, in freedom of association with the Te Pāti Māori, without fear or favour,” he said.
    https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2025/03/10/i-take-no-responsibility-says-john-tamihere-on-loss-of-major-contract-and-conflicts-of-interest/
    
    As a CEO, he should have thought of protecting the jobs of his workers.
    
    But it seems his focus is on himself and his interests, alone.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:12am
    - Quail
      
      Crooks belong in jail,plus compensation to those affected .
      There must be consequences!
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:16am
    - kiwimike
      
      1st rule of leadership : protect your people.
      2nd rule of leadership : create an environment for them to thrive.
      
      It seems he has failed both.
      
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      March 12, 2025 1:01pm
    - Swifty
      
      It’s also a failure of WOCA and Waipareira governance.
      
      https://whanauora.nz/our-people
      
      https://www.waipareira.com/our-people
      
      These are the people who have allowed, through commission or omission, their respective organisations to have become heavily politicised and heavily co-mingled with one political party.
      
      Maybe they should have just stuck to their knitting.
      
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      March 12, 2025 2:00pm
BarryB

The age of the Fuglys.
Watching TV advertising is an interesting past time. It seems that even if you pay for TV you will still be confronted with adverts.
( I dont pay for much TV, but even what we do pay for still has adverts)
A few years ago the age of the Multi-coloured advert became normal. A happy family would consist of a white person, a slightly brown
person and a much darker brown person and usually the coloured persons would not include an Asian. I would look at this fairly unlikely group
and wonder ‘How normal is that?’ . The multi-coloured advert is still around but the decreasing appearance of it indicates that
its not getting a grip out there.
More recently has been the arrival of the FUGLY advert – the people in it are FUcking UGLY. This style really didnt get past its infancy as
it seems to have had an unexpected outcome – no one remembers the advert details or the product or the entity – they only remember
recoiling at the ugliness.
The most recent form used is the ‘boringly normal’ actors. People whose appearance is totally unremarkable. But the words they use
make up a story of total idiocy and stupidity. ie: verbally fugly. I predict the same outcome as the fugly adverts were.

I know that many will think that paying attention to adverts on tv is a but sub-normal – but I find it interesting the methods the advertising industry
come up with. So far nothing is as good as or better than the original Toyota advert – the one of the dog muttering bugger – apparently not
OK for us today….
And if TV1 morning news was an advert – it would be both a fugly and boringly normal production. ZB radio news – although not totally up
to scratch – is a much better assault on the early nerves.
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March 12, 2025 8:18am
- [email protected]
  
  We switched off the TV eleven years ago. Just think how much time and agro we’ve saved!
  
  Also not having to buy new TV’s as more modern versions come out.
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:57am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  c’mon, you’ve gotta love Tina from Turners…
  
  https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/03/12/the-story-behind-tina-from-turners-and-why-the-ad-works/
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:18am
  - Countrygirl
    
    I especially love the song, Sell Us Your Car, which features on the radio. Great ads and fun!
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:38pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Stickman from Pak n Save. Nothing woke there.
    
    Apart from being pro skinny. Obviously.
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:24pm
- Paulus
  
  I don’t know what advert is now showing three times a week now, but it poses as a normal New Zealand Hospital, but has now reverted to almost all Maori.
  Shortass Sreet.
  Having been in hospital some three time in the last year I saw no Maori that I could identify, and no wailing, other than every wall signs identity is underscored everywhere in Maori.
  Tatts too are awful and as these dollies will see as they grow older and shrivel.
  
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  March 12, 2025 2:11pm
  - Countrygirl
    
    Talking about tats… Yesterday in the supermarket I saw a heavily tattoed chap and his equally tattooed lady. Walking behind them down the aisle I noticed the ones on the back of his legs said Mighty Mongrel Mob. I guess it gets around the gang patch dilemma.
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:40pm
- PurplePen
  
  Odd. I’ve watched the chase on tvnz this last week and there’s ads for fast-food which feature only brown people, specifically Maori or PI. It made me wonder if a lot of fast-food advertising targeted these groups. In my idle hours I’m going to have a look and see if this is the case. It might be something that Health NZ should look into if it turns out to be true.
  
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  March 12, 2025 4:55pm
kiwikidsnz

Roy Morgan poll Feb confirms tie (note different minor party results from recent Curia/TPU Poll)

“Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for February 2025 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) on 47.5% (down 2.5% points) tied with the Labour-Greens-Maori Party Parliamentary Opposition on 47.5% (up 1% point).

There were changes in the composition of support for the National-led Government with National down 2% points to 30.5% and NZ First down 2.5% points to 6%. However, coalition partner ACT increased their support, up 1% point to 11%.

For the Parliamentary Opposition, support for Labour increased 0.5% points to 29% and support for the Greens jumped 4% points to 15.5% – the highest level of support for the party for exactly a year since February 2024. In contrast, support for the Maori Party dropped 3.5% points to 3%.”
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9863-nz-national-voting-intention-february-2025?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MRU%2011th%20March%202025&utm_content=MRU%2011th%20March%202025+CID_86b6aedb2d25b896b3229c965cdf6fcc&utm_source=Market%20Research%20Update&utm_term=Read%20Full%20Article
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March 12, 2025 8:19am
- greybeard
  
  Any poll in which respondents select Hipkins as preferred PM, above any other candidate, is rubbish.
  
  No National supporter , no matter how disenchanted they may be with Luxon, is going to switch their vote to Hipkins.
  Same for any NZF and ACT supporter. It simply would not happen.
  Hipkins is loathed by all of those groups.
  
  I also doubt that any National, ACT or NZF supporter would transfer their vote to any of the left parties: even if any did so they would be in such small numbers as to have no effect on a poll.
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:59am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Hipkins is starting up open his mouth and he is showing his usual stupidity, today he says school lunch program was stupid from the start. Meaning Acts school lunch program, but it suggests the whole concept is stupid, own goal I would have thought
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:03am
    - Ghost
      
      No it doesn’t suggest that, he was talking about the price
      
      Here is what he said
      
      “I think my understanding is that Libelle were the only provider that said they could do it for $3 a day and hey, they’ve gone broke. What does that tell you about the fact that this was a stupid idea in the first place?”
      
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      March 12, 2025 10:09am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yet they say the company has been struggling for months, again WTF is Hipkins on about
        
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        March 12, 2025 11:01am
      - PurplePen
        
        A STILL the whole lunch thing features.
        
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        March 12, 2025 4:56pm
  - Grunter
    
    “No National supporter , no matter how disenchanted they may be with Luxon, is going to switch their vote to Hipkins.”
    
    I disagree – I hear plenty of “swing voters” that voted Ardern in 2020, then National in 2023 now saying they would vote Labour.
    
    NZ is fundamentally a left wing State. Apart from the 1980’s reform period under Roger Douglas we have always been some version of ‘tax & spend’.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:24am
    - gravedodger
      
      Who ended that swing to conservative economics, good old Spud Bolger who ended Richardson’s cementing of Douglas’s reforms
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:07am
    - Countrygirl
      
      And now the IMF are calling for NZ to adopt a capital gains tax. Why should we? Interfering b….. S
      
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      March 12, 2025 4:43pm
  - PeeJay
    
    While I absolutely agree with you that Hipkins is useless, I would caution against assuming that anyone who supported National at the last election would not switch their vote to Hipkins / Labour.
    
    I agree that few, if any ACT supporters would switch to Labour, but there may be a few soft NZF voters that would. As with ACT though, most NZF supporters would not.
    
    My personal belief is that both Labour and National have solid, rusted on support somewhere in the mid 20’s. Outside of this core support, there are a lot of floating voters, many of who are incredibly fickle and will, I believe, swing regularly between National and Labour. Some will venture further left or right (Greens or ACT) and back again, but I believe that there is a large amount of floating voters that could best be described as centrist in nature.
    
    Therefore, while no rusted on National supporter would ever transfer their vote to Hipkins / Labour (and the same goes with rusted on Labour supporters moving to National), there will be a large number of floating, fickle, centrist types who will move between the main parties depending on conditions. I suspect the media being pretty much 100% against the government certainly helps this move.
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:33am
    - Paulus
      
      At the nextelection anybody who votes for Hipkins still being Labour leader is bringing their coalition partners being TPM and the Greens
      What a horrid thought !
      
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      March 12, 2025 2:15pm
  - kowtow
    
    But what is a “supporter” .
    
    There’s an awful lot of low information swing voters out there.
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:35am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  So on this poll it is suggesting the complete opposite of what was announced on Monday as far as the make up apart from NZF down
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:00am
- Damocles11
  
  It used to be the Roy Morgan poll that I distrusted as it leaned Left, now they seem to have cleaned up their act and are earning a reputation for accuracy.
  The numbers in the Roy Morgan poll just tally with logic. TPM do not have large scale support above 5%, and ACT voters and not flocking to Labour and woke do-nothing National. ACT on 11% and TPM on 3.5% passes the credibility test.
  So what on earth is going on with the TPU polling, which is these days throwing out bizarre, counter-intuitive results? I will probably unsubscribe from their e-mails, I don’t trust the entity or its motivations.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:40am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They still always show the Greens far higher than reality, they have ties to the Green Party Morgan junior does anyway
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:03am
Cassandra

How to win friends and influence people: former Australian Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull: “The US president’s chaos and capriciousness would benefit China and disadvantage the US.
“President Xi will aim to be the exact opposite of Trump: where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be consistent.”
For countries considering a choice between “China on the one hand, and Trump on the other”, many would “find China a more attractive partner”. Predictably Trump’s response was emphatic. Turnbull was “a weak and useless leader” and Australia will not be exempt from the steel and aluminium tariffs to be imposed on everyone. Turnbull makes Goff look like a diplomat. Dutton doesn’t like Turnbull and now Australians will know why. The tariffs will be imposed today.
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March 12, 2025 8:27am
- Matt Long
  
  One of the first things G W Bush did in office was disrupt the steel market with tarrifs. Free markets are only really a thing for America when it comes to access for their products to other markets.
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:00am
Scooter

If anyone thinks that the Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal will be wrapped up anytime soon is dreaming, especially with Luxon in charge. It probably wouldn’t matter who is in charge, it’s too much of a hot potato, just look at what’s gone on with the Treaty Principles Bill and that doesn’t have a chance of going ahead.
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March 12, 2025 8:31am
G the giant from Dunedin

No mention today of the totally disgusting hitjobs of school lunches in the far North with the kids gleefully throwing lunches into a bucket and media showing pigs eating it, the food looked fine ffs, and the kids seemed happy to throw food away, and did not seem unhappy, i would have thought if they were hungry like the Marxists say they would be unhappy.
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March 12, 2025 8:42am
- pdm
  
  Nuhaka, Northern Hawkes Bay I think G.
  
  Very much a staged show for compliant TV Bullshit news outlets.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:02am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Sorry, it may have been the crap the night before that was Northland
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:04am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes, the kids were directed to throw out the lunches – the whole thing was orchestrated.
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:51am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I have just sat at the lunch table at work and watched one of the young guys eat exactly what was being thrown in the pig bucket, it was mince and pasta, WTF is wrong with mince and pasta? the young guy scoffed the lot
      
      10 1
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      March 12, 2025 12:52pm
      - sirknz
        
        He paid for his directly.
        
        Most people don’t exactly treasure ‘free’ in my experience.
        
        6 0
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        March 12, 2025 3:49pm
- Gravelroad
  
  It should be cancelled.
  It has become just another useful avenue for leftist political activists to undermine the current government.
  Most of them don’t care about hungry children and are happy to use their situation as an electoral campaign tool.
  Ably assisted and supported by a compliant msm.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:09am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Why do the lunches have to be cooked
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:04am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Why do they have to be supplied?
      If kids don’t bring a lunch then fine the parents $50.
      Same fine if the kids are AWOL.
      
      7 1
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      March 12, 2025 12:47pm
    - rockape
      
      I hardly ever have a cooked lunch. My go to is bread or oatmeal biscuits with pickle(home made) and cold meat (home grown) or cheese various also home made. I have just made myself peckish so off to raid the cheese fridge for some home made Stilton and what’s left of a baguette.
      
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      March 12, 2025 6:38pm
- Paulus
  
  Well of course the so called Head Teacher woman called in the media and the Teachers told the children what to do.
  Let tjhem starve I say.
  In my earlier life it was eat it or no puddilng and go; wilt out.
  Yesteday was a Teachers Union setup along with the media.
  
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  March 12, 2025 2:19pm
  - Countrygirl
    
    I recall having to heave my rice pudding out the upstairs window to the dog. Otherwise I was to sit on the stairs until it was gone. The dog liked it.
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:48pm
oldpark

Just noticed again . Another so called NZ owned Insurance company called A A Insurance is really Australian owned . Just like the Australian Banks that ply their trade in New Zealand .
Reason to mention that probably not known fact .
Every year their slogan “We are here to help” as they slog on another almost usurious massive increase on insurance policies mostly on a captive audience of homeowners .
With inflation now beaten “maybe” how can that lot smack on premium increase of circa 30% on a virtually captive audience .Yes seems they are” Here to help” hahaha themselves .
Its take it or leave it with” NZs Most Trusted General Insurer”.For some of us the Jury is still out .Nuff Said .
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March 12, 2025 8:47am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  You don’t have to buy insurance if you don’t like the price or coverage.
  
  It’s not compulsory (although I could make a case for 3rd party motor vehicle being compulsory).
  
  For a few thousand a year, they will replace your house if it burns down or gets flooded. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
  
  Take it or leave it…
  
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  March 12, 2025 2:03pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    There’s little competition in the NZ home insurance market – essentially, two companies operating under different brands. It’s also true that some of them simply won’t insure some properties (and not just those on flood plains).
    
    In Wellington, my premium is up 35% and the other mob aren’t interested in quoting. Nothing unusual about my property either.
    
    Makes the rates hike look reasonable.
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:31pm
- Paulus
  
  Is the Company actually Australian ?
  – is it not being Managed along with Vero- ex Royal Sun Alliance, as now owned by SunCorp in Australia.
  
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  March 12, 2025 2:23pm
Happy1

Could anyone (master mariner?) tell me why ships auto steer allow a course that crosses land, Picton ferry, doesn’t disengage when it’s steaming towards a coral reef, HLGQ Monowai, or not set off an alarm when it’s going to plough into a moored vessel, North Sea. Our Suzuki won’t allow us to rear end a car in front, autonomous breaking, will tell us when we drift out of lane etc.
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March 12, 2025 8:53am
- [email protected]
  
  You can set alarms on radar. You can set inner and outer boundary rings and if anything shows up in that area an alarm will sound. There is really no excuse for a ship to run into anything even if there is no physical person watching.
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:52am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Can set the alarm on my boat GPS. Set a course to a waypoint and if you veer off that it lets me know. Especially good at night navigation.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:13am
- john1234
  
  Autopilots do what they’re told. It is the responsibility of the captain to ensure that the vessel is navigated properly, not some device.
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:01am
imalwaysright

Has anyone noticed that the Maori race has become extinct.
There will never again be born a full blooded Maori.
Should the term Maori henceforth refer to ones ancestry?
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March 12, 2025 9:05am
- septic skeptic
  
  I think all of us are blends to a greater or lesser extent. How would you even define a pure blooded Englishman? One who was 100% Saxon? No trace of Roman, Dane, Norman or any of the more recent ethnic arrivals? He doesn’t exist either.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:08am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    But us mixed mongrel Europeans don’t get anything special over and above that of others.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:16am
  - Paulus
    
    I am derived somewhere in France, to Ireland, to England, to New Zealand, as far back as I can go.
    
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    March 12, 2025 2:25pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      We’re all related to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Paulus.
      
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      March 12, 2025 8:34pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I do bookkeeping work for a couple of full blooded Maoris. I have seen the birth certificates for their, now dead, father and mother which record that they were full blooded Maoris.
  I think the Registrar of Births stopped putting full blooded Maori on birth certificates some time before 1970.
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:08am
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    Since when did birth certificates have DNA test results for race?
    I call BS
    
    7 3
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    March 12, 2025 3:01pm
    - Swifty
      
      That’s not what he claimed.
      
      5 2
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      March 12, 2025 3:31pm
      - keepcalmcarryon
        
        Whose birth certificate says full blooded anything?
        Except for Germany in the late thirties?
        BS
        
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        March 12, 2025 7:11pm
      - Ghost
        
        NZ birth certificates used too, as did death certificates
        
        https://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/num_reg/mbadrr1935an11947568.pdf
        https://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1913/24.pdf
        
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        March 12, 2025 7:43pm
      - keepcalmcarryon
        
        So not since the late 1930s then Ghost? , 1913 probably predates old mate claiming he’s seen birth certs with “full blood”?unless he’s really really old. Plus who says what full blood anything is? DNA science was “somewhat limited” in 1913 .
        And it’s not perfect since either.
        
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        March 12, 2025 9:38pm
      - Ghost
        
        My god do you have the ability to understand what you are reading or just want to be ignorant for the hell of it
        
        Tauhei said I have seen the birth certificates for their, now dead, father and mother which record that they were full blooded Maoris.. Do you understand what now dead means?
        
        Get over yourself
        
        Oh it is was 1974 with the Māori Affairs Amendment Act that Māori stopped to refereed to as someone with half or more blood.
        
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        March 12, 2025 9:48pm
RoboRob

Thinking around TPM and their multiple breaches of electoral law but not returning audited filings on time.

The police essentially said, yeah that’s bad but we are not going to do anything. The law allows for imprisonment and severe fines, it is a serious issue. Where is Mark Mitchell on this? Surely it is the polices role to enforce laws not to pick and choose.

I know that for decades all parties have benefitted from the police essentially refusing to enforce electoral law. Perhaps its time we start enforcing it evenly across all parties.

If its not enforced then its now really a law, just a guideline.
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March 12, 2025 9:09am
- septic skeptic
  
  Agree with your main point but it isn’t Mark Mitchell’s role to get involved. Parliament should review the laws and appoint a watchdog to enforce them.
  Should but won’t.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:11am
  - RoboRob
    
    The watchdog to enforce the laws is the police. The laws, at least around this, are clear with well defined penalties.
    
    Government is in charge of oversight of the police, via the commissioner. Surely it is their role to ‘poke’ the police if they fail to uphold the law?
    
    Mark Mitchel is a good bloke and probably has other bigger issues to deal with but surely its not a big deal to chat with the commissioner about a change of enforcement of electoral law. Especially when we now have at least one party that doesn’t believe any rules or laws apply to them.
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:29am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  The watchdog is the Police, who are obviously being held back.
  But by who?
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:20am
  - RoboRob
    
    I think, at least over the last 20 years police decided to stay totally out of politics. To my recollection they have not enforced penalties on any party or politician.
    
    Where penalties have been paid it has been through honesty, not enforcement. For example I believe Willie Jackson was supposed to be repaying some money but AFAIK has never done so. Not sure if Winston ever paid the money he owed, I believe he decided he would give it to charity.
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:33am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      It is not just politics, there seems to be a lot of fraud and corruption happening.
      
      6 2
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      March 12, 2025 2:22pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  My whitey mate who employs two people (big employer?) has had two $250 fines for filing his weekly wages tax forms 15 days late.
  And the [Mod – we don’t lower our standards to match others] Party get away with that egregious disregard of the law.
  The moderator may consider the term is use for that party disrespectful. I am showing the same respect for that Party as they show to the laws of my country.
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:14am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “[Mod – we don’t lower our standards to match others] ”
    
    Probably the best moderation I have read. Well done!
    
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    March 12, 2025 12:54pm
Jack5

Is the NZ immigration appeal tribunal suffering from advanced Woke-Head sickness?

A Sri Lankan woman, aged 32, claims, that as an aspiring politician she was “sidelined because she was a woman – found her house surrounded by gunmen, and was also a victim of sextortion.”

The tribunal, granting her refuge, says “country sources suggested that harassment of women in politics in Sri Lanka was escalating.”

The tribunal is a hole in New Zealand’s border.

Stand by for a stream of 30-year-old plus Sri Lankan women seeking refugee status.

Sri Lanka has 22 million people.

There are about eight billion people in the world. There must be millions of aspiring politicians the tribunal could offer refugee status to.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/aspiring-sri-lankan-politician-gains-refugee-status-in-nz-amid-threats/DRVEOX67BNEX5OILNOMR5NE444/
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March 12, 2025 9:28am
- kowtow
  
  India has a huge problem with sex attacks on women .
  
  It really is a massive problem there .
  
  And there’s a hell of a lot more of Indians than Sri Lankans .
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:41am
  - Damocles11
    
    In his desperation, Luxon is going to sign a deal which will result in virtually an ‘open border’ for immigrants coming from India. Which will be very, very bad for this country and very, very unpopular with the NZ public. We are in very, very serious trouble.
    
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    March 12, 2025 1:42pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      As long as they are not Muslim…………
      
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      March 12, 2025 3:18pm
    - PurplePen
      
      Somehow we need protection of NZ culture etc protected by legislation. Just as the reinterpretation of the ToW supposedly protects Maori culture. It’s not fair that our own culture isn’t protected.
      
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      March 12, 2025 5:06pm
- Flossie
  
  Could be wrong, but I understood Sri Lanka was the first country in the world to have a female PM?
  
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  March 12, 2025 12:32pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Correct, but it was called Celyon back in 1960, the woman’s name was Sirimavo Bandaranaike
    
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    March 12, 2025 12:56pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  “Aspiring politician” = unelected activist
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:37pm
Grunter

NZ’s Debt Clock…..
https://www.debtclock.nz/

OUR Debt is higher now than at any other point in history.

OUR Debt is climbing at more than $1 million……EVERY HOUR! This “right wing Govt” is running a deficit of $20 billion pa.

NZ is a small trading nation. OUR Debt exposes us to global turbulence more than larger nations – we have no head room left.

We are now heading into a period of global chaos – wars, trade wars, sovereign debt defaults,……

And yet we are talking about school lunches and giving mountains the rights of a person…..

And I don’t think we have reached ‘maximum lunacy’ yet.
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March 12, 2025 9:37am
- Ian Boag
  
  a deficit of $20 billion pa … talking about school lunches
  
  Yep. Every little bit helps of course. We could bin school lunches and save $120m per year. That will take the deficit down to $19.88 bn. …
  
  Assuming the $20bn figure is accurate .. I’m not quite sure what we can talk about to move the annual accounts by any reasonable fraction of $20bn, especially as there is a moderately compelling case to up defence spending by something like $5bn.
  
  We could probably knock a couple of billion out of the pension scheme by income testing it. Maybe squeeze a billion out of health costs by continuing on the present path. If there was a CGT then it would start raising some money in a few years. Have to say the sustainability of recent tax cuts looks a bit questionable.
  
  Long way to $20bn though. Or even $10bn.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:05am
  - Sacha
    
    “Look after the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.”
    Works with $ and c, too.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:24am
  - cmm
    
    The pension scheme is already, at least partially, means tested.
    
    If the current scheme is to be changed (and I think it should), then that will need a multi-decade transition.
    
    As it is, anyone that would not get the pension due to means testing would be paying in more than their pension in tax anyway – so are self supporting.
    
    The real problems are the spend-first-think-later and taxpayer-money-is-infinite attitudes.
    
    The time to look for a parachute is before you jump out of the plane. If you jump first then you are unlikely to find the parachute you need.
    
    The time to think about the impact of stupid spending is BEFORE you do it. Trying to mop up afterwards does not work.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:34am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Here we go again. Pension is a transfer payment aka benefit. Tax is what you pay on income.
      
      You have this fixation about “your tax is paying for your pension”. You could also say it is “because you are old you are getting a tax cut” ….
      
      Re the multi-decade transition thing. The shift from 60 to 65 took just one decade – age was raised by 6 months/year for 10 years. Started more or less immediately when the decision was made. No 20-year leadin. Seemed to work OK with no huge upheavals. Would work again ….
      
      Anyway I was just commenting on what a long way it is to $20bn. Some of what is done to make that happen will have social justice aspects and cause significant hardship. Nothing should be off the table.
      
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      March 12, 2025 11:28am
      - cmm
        
        Certainly another 5 year shift over a decade is achievable (say from 65 to 70, one month every 2 months from now to 2035).
        
        But jacking with the actual payout is another story.
        
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        March 12, 2025 12:16pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @cmm
        
        “jacking with the actual payout”.
        
        It’s a benefit – funded by taxpayers and paid to beneficiaries (oldies). Every other benefit is income tested …. some concept of “need” …..
        
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        March 12, 2025 1:47pm
      - cmm
        
        I think you are wrong because that is not how the NZ Super is sold to people.
        
        Certainly when I arrived in NZ in 1992 and became a taxpayer it was very well understood by everyone that the NZ Super was thought of as a retirement scheme run by the state that you paid through your taxes.
        
        I think the idea of it being a benefit just like the dole, but for old people is a very different and more recent view.
        
        Certainly if I was in my 20s or 30s I would very much doubt that the NZ Super would be there in the future and hence 20 and 30 year olds should save.
        
        But the reality of the situation is that we have a bunch of people in their 50s and 60s who are not able to save up enough.
        
        As I wrote previously, the majority of 60+ year olds have less than $80k in retirement savings and are entirely dependent on the Super. Likely the number of couples who could live comfortably on their savings alone (ie. somewhere around $2M saved) is well less than 10%.
        
        You could say that is their problem because they should have expected the government to screw it up. Maybe they should have. But they haven’t. They bought the leftie lie.
        
        Regardless, taking the NZ Super away from the 5 to 10% is unlikely to really move the needle, especially considering they’re likely paying enough tax to cover their own super.
        
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        March 12, 2025 5:34pm
      - rockape
        
        So your financial advice to people would be not to save for your old age. Boy am I glad I didn’t take advice that dumb. So when I lose my NZ pension should I contact the uk pension people to stop pay my uk pension to the NZ government?
        
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        March 12, 2025 6:20pm
    - MCōs
      
      Means testing the pension scheme is a double edged sword.
      If Joe Average doesn’t change then below must increase or the system is unfair.
      Also
      WINZ might find that suddenly the previously wealthy beneficiaries are suddenly not wealthy anymore.
      Note that the pension must be applied, including the rich who don’t need it now and for the good of the country could have passed up the opportunity
      I wonder how many people collect the pension who don’t need to complain about beneficiaries who do need the money?
      
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      March 12, 2025 5:31pm
      - cmm
        
        “I wonder how many people collect the pension who don’t need to complain about beneficiaries who do need the money?”
        
        What do you mean by “need”? Few people “need” nearly as much as they think.
        
        In NZ people have wants not needs. People have an expectation of relative comfort
        
        The number of people who can live what we would consider a comfortable but non-luxurious life by NZ standards on just their own savings is incredibly low. Based on various government docs, you would need to be in the top 5% to be able to do that.
        
        https://assets.retirement.govt.nz/public/Uploads/Policy/TAAO-RC-Policy-Paper-What-else-do-people-have-beyond-KS-and-NZS_AW.pdf
        
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        March 12, 2025 5:46pm
  - Grunter
    
    At ‘some point’ we hit the brick wall of REALITY. We simply can not run a $20b+ annual deficit forever. Socialism and ponzi schemes always fail when they run out of other peoples money.
    
    I don’t think NZ will ever vote in a Govt that will slash spending by $20b+ And this deficit of course is about to explode higher as the population ages.
    
    Sovereign Debt default is historically the way Govts deal to this mess (it has happened multiple times throughout history). I think Luxon/Willis are on that train of thought as I see no sign of anything else in their actions.
    
    But hey – aren’t those school lunches awful//
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:36am
  - rockape
    
    Best take a cut out of education especially Uni education. Why are pensioners paying tax to support left wing protestors life at Uni for three years. A 50%. Cut in the education budget could be achieved.
    
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    March 12, 2025 6:24pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  A good starting point would be to ask Ardern what she did with all of the money.
  Let’s see some receipts, and don’t blame Covid.
  The 2025 Government has to spend money to get us back on track. If we just stop, the debt will never be paid back.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:25am
  - imalwaysright
    
    You would think the Audit Office would be monitoring the use of public money, they would logically be the overseer of all of the ministries spending.
    Plenty of rich pickings for them since Adern.
    
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    March 12, 2025 10:39am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Audit Office infested with Labour plants?
      Oh yeah, that Audit Office!
      
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      March 12, 2025 2:24pm
  - cmm
    
    In many ways that is a waste of time.
    
    Yes, it would be good to have a “never again” learning moment, but spending a lot of time finding out who to blame solves nothing.
    
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    March 12, 2025 11:18am
- cmm
  
  Since there are only around 200k net taxpayers who effectively pay all extra the tax, that $20bn per year is effectively $100k per net taxpayer.
  
  A truly unsustainable amount.
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:05am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    We already know who to blame – a mad crazy socialist.
    
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    March 12, 2025 12:07pm
- Jack5
  
  Can you clarify those figures please, Grunter?
  
  You say the Government is “running a deficit of $20 billion pa[sic].
  
  Treasury has said the Governments operating balance before gains and losses deficit for the 2024 financial year widened by nearly $3.4 billion to reach $12.9 billion.
  
  It also said that net core Crown debt reached $175.5 billion at 30 June 2024 (42.5 per cent of GDP).
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:18am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The debt clock is a load of bullshit, it never stops and let’s remember the debt clock under Nat’s and Key, they never had to borrow in their third term, but the debt clock never stopped. last week it was announced that tax take was 600 mill above expectations and spending down 600 mill, that is 1.2 billion that will never have been accounted for
    
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    March 12, 2025 1:01pm
- Quail
  
  Grunter,
  Don’t worry ,successive governments continued deficit budgeting, and spending will ensure that the debt is inflated away,
  This governments talk of encouraging savings is a very bad joke.
  Those looking at their Kiwi saver / bank accounts over the last five years should ,before saying great , factor in the 25 % inflation ( 5%pa).
  And include the tax on bank saving accounts
  The purchasing power of your savings has fallen by that amount— but you just think you are richer!
  You are not!
  Government is still spending more than it earns and budgeting for this.
  They are using inflation as a stealth tax.( as Milton Friedman postulated )
  So saving in this economic environment is simply losing.
  A further recent concern is the Reservey Bank governor has walked away from his job giving no reason for so doing.Why?
  Stability of the NZD is the concern .
  What happens next for NZ savers ?
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:59am
- Damocles11
  
  Luxon and Willis and the National party think we are idiots. They fully expect us to believe that they have slashed government spending and consequently inflation has dropped. We know this isn’t true. It demonstrably just is not true. In the absence of cuts to government spending, it can only be the case that the Reserve Bank cuts to the OCR have curbed inflation. That’s the only possible conclusion. And yet we still have National supporters show up here and claim the government has curbed inflation. Even though they know we know the data on spending and deficits. 🤦🏻‍♂️
  
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  March 12, 2025 1:48pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Yesterday commenter Ra Henare opined that Luxon (and the Nats) should stop “currying favour with Maori elite” and concentrate on shoring up the working Indian/Asian vote.

Seems a very sensible suggestion, considering that Asian folk comprise nearly one third of Auckland’s population and are increasing.

The proportion of Aucklanders who are Asian has increased. In 2023, 31.3% of the total Auckland usually resident population identified with an Asian ethnicity, up from 28.2% at the 2018 Census.

So – significantly more Asians live in Auckland than Maori. More than twice as many.

https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2025/03/10/asians-could-make-a-case-for-special-governance-arrangements-in-auckland-but-they-dont-have-a-treaty/
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March 12, 2025 10:01am
- RoboRob
  
  A good point. I would add in that that the percentage of Maori that vote for National must be tiny. Couldn’t find data but I am guessing well that the percentage of Maori that are ‘Always Labour’, ‘Always TPM’ or just ‘Never National’ is very high. Kind of a waste of effort to try and pander to that group and risk losing other voters.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:14am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Its always a surprise to me that National try and be everything to everyone. There are a core of voters who will never vote for National. Just like Labour have been doing for years, National should completely ignore the people who will never vote for them. In fact, National should be bagging them publicly every opportunity they get.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:17am
  - Gravelroad
    
    “National should completely ignore the people who will never vote for them.”
    Well they do a pretty good job of ignoring the people who have traditionally voted for them – so why not give it a go?
    In case you are puzzled, I am referring to farmers and rural communities.
    
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    March 12, 2025 2:24pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Must be time for some Asian Seats in Parliament.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:29am
  - kowtow
    
    I thought that was Jamie Lee Ross’ dept .
    
    $100 k a pop.
    
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    March 12, 2025 3:29pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Richard Prebble on the attack…

Arguments about the meaning of words is causing the message of the Treaty to be lost.

Anne Salmond is not a lawyer. I am.

If the tribunal is right and the chiefs and the governor misunderstood each other so there are two completely different treaties, then there was no agreement at Waitangi.

There is a legal principle of “misunderstanding”. If two parties completely misunderstand each other, then there is no “meeting of the minds” (consensus ad idem), which is essential for a valid contract.

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/03/richard-prebble-misunderstandings-and.html
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March 12, 2025 10:29am
- Grunter
  
  I now conclude that The Treaty is void.
  
  Seymour’s Treaty Bill exposed a wide chasm of opinions about its meaning, both now and in 1840.
  
  So we either continue to argue its meaning, to no end game. Or, we all agree to disagree, and call it void.
  
  But, of course, as a country, we will continue to tear ourselves apart by arguing, then fighting, over it’s meaning and handing out more money to the partly-Maori.
  
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  March 12, 2025 10:47am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The Treaty scam continues because the public foots the bill for the complainants.
    If the government offered free Lotto tickets there wouldn’t be many that would refuse them.
    Make complainants fund their own action and present proper evidence. The spooky spiritual shit is wearing thin.
    
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    March 12, 2025 1:04pm
  - Eastlander
    
    Prendergast was right, they never had any sovereignty to cede.
    
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    March 12, 2025 1:12pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      And never had any land to sell either as it belonged to inhabitants that had already been here for thousands of years.
      
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      March 12, 2025 2:31pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    The Treaty is as it was written, in English, and in Maori. And all the history, notes, documented accounts, both Maori and English discussions and debate prior to signing indicate beyond all reasonable doubt that the Maori chiefs knew what they were signing.
    
    On top of that you have letters to the Queen, and Maori chiefs that traveled overseas, including to Britain.
    
    But the Maori activists will have you believe that their ancestors didn’t understand a word of English and that English settlers and translators didn’t understand a word of Maori.
    
    The Maori activists are essentially saying that their ancestors, especially the tribal elders, were absolute dumb f**ks with the IQ of a possum. How disrespectful.
    
    How then in 2025, can Non-Maori Maori activists state that their ancestors in 1840 didn’t know what they were doing, yet from 1840 said ancestors lived and acted according to both the word and spirit of the Treaty?
    
    Maori ceded sovereignty. Period.
    
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    March 12, 2025 2:26pm
- cmm
  
  Aah, but all that consensus ad idem stuff is just colonial mumbo jumbo… it will just get waved away.
  
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  March 12, 2025 11:10am
Bridgenag

Mark Carney: Canada’s Unelected PM
Rather than his stellar CV, it’s a quirk in the Constitution Act of 1867 that has opened the door for Carney.

https://open.substack.com/pub/cranmer/p/mark-carney-canadas-unelected-pm?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 12, 2025 10:36am
- Philview
  
  I was questioning Trump’s hard stance on Canada being the 51st State but after reading about Carney in that article there is something not right with a Government that parachutes in a new PM from outside of politics who wasn’t even living in the Country. It is an affront to democracy.
  
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  March 12, 2025 1:22pm
  - kowtow
    
    I think his time at the B o E was quite controversial.
    
    Talking of Canadian sovereignty ; I’ll believe it when they switch back to driving on the correct side of the road .
    
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    March 12, 2025 3:27pm
  - MCōs
    
    Carney has been living in Canada for the last five years after seven years in the UK.
    Chris Luxon was elsewhere for sixteen years.
    The latter is an example of what happens when you parachute in a non politician.
    
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    March 12, 2025 5:13pm
- kiwi_chileno
  
  “Carney is living, breathing proof that expert credentials are no substitute for sound judgement or political acumen. He has embraced just about every naff and dangerous political trend of our times, never deviating from the Davos script.” https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/11/mark-carney-is-wrong-about-everything/
  
  At least Carney won’t be available to replace Adrian Orr.
  
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  March 12, 2025 4:40pm
Ghost

Threats to a school, police and parliament. Bit early for exams

An Auckland high school has closed for the day after they were targeted by a threatening email that was forwarded to numerous organisations and individuals.

Article
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March 12, 2025 12:43pm
- Inandout
  
  Ghost, a good excuse for teacher only days.
  
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  March 12, 2025 12:53pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Teachers would have been the first to welcome it.
    Woo-hoo! Another day off.
    
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    March 12, 2025 3:06pm
- sirknz
  
  It is either some idiot kids pulling a prank or a nefarious group testing the response times and protocols for something else much worse in the future.
  
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  March 12, 2025 4:04pm
mandk

My goodness, what a hypocrite: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360611448/olympic-pole-vaulter-eliza-mccartney-very-angry-about-climate-change-votes-green-and-pakeha-who

Let me give you a tip, Eliza: if you are so angry about climate change, you could stop flying all over the place with your job and find another way to make a living. You could find a job in a shop or an office and get a bus or bike to work, if you really wanted to reduce your carbon footprint.

But, I’m sure you won’t. It would be too much to sacrifice travelling the world to participate in pole vault competitions and being glamorous.
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March 12, 2025 1:10pm
- Ghost
  
  Virtue signaling look at me princess
  
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  March 12, 2025 1:26pm
- Damocles11
  
  She’s one of the legion of western women who are slaves to their caring, nurturing emotions and get sucked in hook, line, and sinker by the leftist / green bunkum about ‘empathy’ and ‘we’re saving the planet’. Rational thought goes out the window.
  We are in serious trouble.
  
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  March 12, 2025 1:51pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Interesting discussion on human consciousness – how most of what we think about ourselves and how we are making decisions is just rationalized post-hoc invented bullshit created as part of our memory process. We are to a large degree automatons, being pushed around by instinct biased towards significantly different subconscious/instinctual goals depending upon whether we are female or male.
    
    https://youtu.be/Mt0jomeP8nU
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:12pm
- rouppe
  
  Urghhhh…
  
  McCartney said “it is probably not a surprise that I’m usually a Green supporter” and when voting, the environment is “probably my number one priority”.
  
  Except the Greens aren’t an environmental party. Anyone who still thinks that is deluded.
  
  “I’ve also learned how much Te Ao Māori, the Māori world view, cultural practices and tikanga play into such important things when it comes to sustainability.”
  
  Was it the:
  * Burning forest as a hunting method
  * Extinction of the Moa
  * Extinction of the Haast eagle
  * Regular warfare or
  * Slavery
  That you really connected with, Eliza?
  
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  March 12, 2025 2:04pm
  - mandk
    
    Don’t forget hunting huia to extinction, for the purpose of obtaining their tail feathers.
    
    Who cares, though? Huia feathers make ka pai hair ornaments.
    
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    March 12, 2025 8:06pm
- Gravelroad
  
  She’s a star.
  Didn’t you know?
  On Green Party list for next election.
  Why not?
  She is a giggly star who speaks Te Reo. What more do ya want?
  
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  March 12, 2025 2:15pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    It would be interesting to know how much conversational maori she ACTUALLY has….I would suggest without daily usage the utility of it disappears rapidly and she does not strike me as someone who converses in it daily, every day….Is that a nice way to call her a liar? Other than that I see a virtue signally tokenist at play.
    
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    March 12, 2025 2:30pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Luxon giggles a lot. Just saying.
    
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    March 12, 2025 5:11pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Airhead. Must be a job at TV1 coming up for her.
  
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  March 12, 2025 3:07pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Unglued!

https://rumble.com/v6qhsy0-hearing-comes-unglued-after-republican-refers-to-trans-democrat-as-mr.html?
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March 12, 2025 1:39pm
Morgan H

Based on current polling:
National and Labour will have the same amount of seats. National losing some while Labour gains.
Act is unable to keep any gains in the polls. It’ll probably keep the same amount of seats.
NZ First is 50/50 whether it stays in parliament.
The Greens and the Maori Party have the activist vote switching between them. Collectively the two are looking at picking up a seat or two.

If the election were held today, I believe the current government wouldn’t have the numbers to govern. The only way Luxon would stay prime minister would be to trade NZ First for the Maori Party. If NZ First fails to make it back, then that might be Luxon’s only choice if he wants to stay.
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March 12, 2025 2:45pm
- Damocles11
  
  Wow, sounds like yet more bad news for ACT.
  Hang on, the poll says they’ve gained a percentage point and are on 11%. 🤦🏻‍♂️
  Meanwhile National’s potential coalition partner – according to you – Te Pati Maori are the ones actually slumping.
  
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  March 12, 2025 3:28pm
  - Morgan H
    
    You’re focused on a single poll.
    
    National’s polling for the last three polls were; 33.6%, 30.5%, and 34%. These are all lower than the 38.08% they got at the last election.
    
    Labour’s polling for the last three polls were; 34.1%, 29%, and 33%. These are all higher than the 26.92% they got at the last election.
    
    Act’s polling for the last three polls were; 7.7%, 11%, and 9%. Act got 8.64% at the last election. The highest Roy Morgan poll for Act this cycle was 13% back in December, while the highest Taxpayers’ Union poll was 13.7% in February last year. If we look at where Roy Morgan’s final poll before the last election, it had Act on 11.5%, yet they only got 8.64% when it counted.
    
    The Maori Party’s polling for the last three polls; 6.5%, 3%, and 3.7%. Last election they got 3.08%. The one that has them on 3% has the Greens on 15.5%…
    
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    March 12, 2025 4:47pm
    - MCōs
      
      I would suggest the more boisterous TPM has become and the more strident the anti Maori rhetoric elsewhere the better their polling
      One may not like this phenomenon, but there are plenty of examples
      
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      March 12, 2025 7:29pm
    - mandk
      
      The minor parties’ share of the vote varies a lot in the polls.
      
      This makes the polls unreliable as an indicator of which main party could lead a government, especially when Labour and National are getting much the same share.
      
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      March 12, 2025 8:12pm
- MCōs
  
  I’m guessing Winston will retire from parliament in the next few weeks or months and become NZ ambassador to the USA
  Without him as leader New Zealand First will most certainly not be back after the next election.
  All a bit premature, but I wonder where their votes would go?
  
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  March 12, 2025 4:49pm
  - Morgan H
    
    That’s an interesting question. Where can conservative voters go? NZ First it the most socially conservative party in parliament. David Seymour tries to win over conservative voters by calling things woke but this won’t work. Act is not a socially conservative party.
    
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    March 12, 2025 5:12pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  You do know that Luxon is indirectly a Maori activist right?
  Of course he wants the racist Party on board with him!
  Will Luxon act like Ardern and pick anyone who will keep him as Prime Minister?
  Of course he will – oh let’s go for co-governance while we are at it!!!!
  
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  March 12, 2025 5:42pm
Pope Punctilious II

Has this story about the new gene technology bill been posted before?
“The proposed bill isn’t compliant with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and ignores tikanga, and our evidence that when applied, these frameworks lead to better science as well as benefits for Māori”, according to Associate Professor Phillip Wilcox (Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Rongomaiwahine), a quantitative geneticist and bioethicist at Otago University.
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March 12, 2025 3:04pm
- Jack5
  
  Further to His Holiness’s post on the gene technology bill …
  
  Teaching responsibilities of lecturer Wilcox described in the first person, as listed by Otago University include:
  
  In my role as Kaikōkiri Māori, responsibilities include overseeing all Māori content taught in the Genetics Teaching Programme to ensure it is relevant and aligns with tikanga Māori, as well as ensuring graduate attributes are achieved regarding requisite cultural knowledge and capabilities.
  
  Among the “ongoing interests” Wilcox lists is: “Culturally informed study design and data sovereignty, particularly ‘omic [sic] data.”
  
  https://www.otago.ac.nz/maths-and-stats/people/associate-professor-phillip-wilcox
  
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  March 12, 2025 9:21pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Canada backs down.
Would you play poker with this Trump man?
25% electric surcharge.
Ok, I will raise you 50% on aluminum and steel.

See Canada would win two ways if they became the 51st State. No tariffs, and give their socialism a right kick up the arse!

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/canada-backs-down-on-25-charge-for-electricity-exports-hours-after-trump-threatens-new-tariff-for-steel/ar-AA1AIonI?
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March 12, 2025 3:21pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  I thought you travelled to that part of the world frequently Steve ?
  
  If so you should realise that the vast majority of Canadians have zero interest in becoming part of the USA.
  
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  March 12, 2025 5:36pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Alaska Doc. Quite different from the socialist Canada.
    
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    March 12, 2025 5:43pm
    - Northshoredoc
      
      OK.
      
      What in particular have you got against Canada ?
      
      They seem to be quite happy (well as much as any country is) with their healthcare, education system in comparison to the system in the USA?
      
      I’ve travelled widely in the USA and Canada and haven’t found any Canadians who would welcome becoming part of the USA.
      
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      March 12, 2025 7:06pm
      - Ghost
        
        Steve is a parrot. If trump says it, he’s gushing over it and posting it here. He doesn’t have the ability to do anything but parrot trump.
        
        I agree with you. I’ve got family in Canada, there is no way in hell Canada would want to be a US state. The US national anthem is being booed now at sporting events in Canada.
        
        2 1
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        March 12, 2025 7:26pm
Ghost

4 arrested, more to come.

Police have arrested four people following an investigation into a protest last month at the Auckland Pride Festival at the Te Atatū Community Centre, where a children’s event was taking place.

Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan confirmed that officers carried out arrests at addresses in South and West Auckland on Wednesday morning.

Article
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March 12, 2025 4:04pm
sirknz

Isn’t diversity awesome?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/high-school-girl-allegedly-indecently-assaulted-on-route-18-bus-auckland-police-seek-mans-identity/IUHLADLFDNB75JXJK5RRPK3SGE/
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March 12, 2025 4:07pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Look at that story and ask how long girls have been admitted to Auckland Grammar School. Has Epsom Girls Grammar School dipped so badly that the girls are now going to AGS?
  
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  March 12, 2025 8:51pm
  - MCōs
    
    Neither of those schools are mentioned in the article.
    The student assaulted on the bus attends Auckland Girls Grammar.
    Maybe Auckland Grammar has specific facilities not available elsewhere
    I don’t know
    
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    March 13, 2025 1:42am
Ghost

20 year old gave cannabis to a girl when he was 17, raped her 5 times. Now at 20 the judge won’t sentence him to jail because he was too young for jail when he committed the crime. Really, we’ve had younger criminals go to jail. Imagine if a judge had said to Bailey Junior Kurariki you are too young for jail.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/teen-too-young-for-jail-after-admitting-unlawful-sex-with-underage-girl-five-times/5SV7VJVGE5AI5JSTDECG5PXWH4/
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March 12, 2025 9:21pm

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