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March 15, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 March 2025

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Cassandra

What next in the Ukraine war? Ukraine has agreed to a 30 day ceasefire. According to The Times this morning Putin ha rejected Trump’s envoy, Witikoff who has left Moscow for home. “Not the designated intermediary “. He’s also imposed restrictions such as Ukraine is to cease any military resupply or training. Surely this is the end. Trump threatened Armageddon if Russ doesn’t come on board so is that next? Massive support for Ukraine and Russia pushed back?
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March 15, 2025 8:01am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Seem to remember he also threatened Hamas with Armageddon. What happened about that?
  
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  March 15, 2025 8:10am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The stopped fighting and started handing over the hostages, I think that was the requirement, but hey haters don’t use all facts
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:02pm
  - Anthony Melchett
    
    Lol. Hummus.
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:44pm
  - Vidar
    
    He told Israel he would back whatever decision they made. He also said he would arm them to the teeth. Unlike the previous administration who constantly undermined them.
    
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    March 15, 2025 1:57pm
    - kiwimike
      
      Democratic Party.
      let’s name the buggers !
      
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      March 15, 2025 3:22pm
- Yvette
  
  Cassandra, of sources I have read, several indicate Putin, in invading Ukraine, wished to increase the buffer around the Mother Russia he was reviving, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  
  How then does Trump present his aspirations (in timing and ambition) to annex Canada and Greenland, while dealing with Russia over their intended buffer of Ukraine?
  
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  March 15, 2025 8:17am
  - JackRabbit
    
    …Putin, in invading Ukraine, wished to increase the buffer around the Mother Russia…
    
    No, he wished to retain the buffer around Russia by not having the corrupt NATO camped on his doorstep.
    
    New Zealanders would not be happy if Australia came under Chinese control, and the USA would not be happy if Canada was under Chinese control.
    
    Rightly or wrongly, Trump is threatening to annex Canada because of a perceived threat from Canada as a result of Canada going all Marxist. And it is taking tough action over Mexico.
    
    So why should Russia be happy with the Ukraine being under NATO/USA control?
    
    What reasons does Putin have to trust the West, when the west does not respect Russia’s boundaries in the same way the West expects its boundaries to be respected,
    
    I’m anti-communist, so not a Putin sympathiser, but in recent decades the West has flipped to being more authoritarian than so called communist countries.
    
    Unless anyone has selective amnesia, they should remember what NZ under Ardern did in the last few years, and Australia, Canada, and parts of the USA.
    
    It was the USA deep state / Fauci that rained terror upon the world in the form of bio-weapons released in Wuhan, and then a toxic vaccine. It did not originate from the Kremlin.
    
    As J D Vance stated, our enemies are not other countries, but internal threats within countries.
    
    It is all so easy to point out external threats from other countries, and be blind to the internal threats.
    
    NZ has far more risk from being decimated from co-governance and fake climate change than from a Russian invasion or for that matter China.
    
    Russia continues to mine oil and gas, as does China, the latter continuing to build Coal powered power stations. So clearly they have not been captured by the Marxist Green / WEF Climate change agenda. What does that say about Marxism in NZ, since we have been captured by those Marxist agendas?
    
    While NZ is riddled with Marxist Greens/Fake Climate Change/Marxist Co-Governance bullshit, NZ is more Marxist than our so called “enemies” who we despise.
    
    Zelensky is a Marxist puppet, no different than Trudeau or Ardern (and the deep state she grew and left in charge). NZ needs to clean house of it’s own Marxist crap before pointing fingers elsewhere.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:13am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Actually Putin is not a Marxist. Dictator & authoritarian for sure, and he did invade Ukraine, but not for the reasons many on here & around the world claim. He has actually promoted ‘2 genders’, is against LGBT+ & the Gay & Rainbow agendas, removed restrictions on Christianity (and is wary of Islam) & has promoted the building of churches.
      He is a bad ass, of course – but otherwise, Jack is correct.
      
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      March 15, 2025 12:39pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Thanks Don.
        
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        March 15, 2025 3:02pm
    - rouppe
      
      No, he wished to retain the buffer around Russia by not having the corrupt NATO camped on his doorstep.
      
      He seems to have achieved the opposite though.
      
      Last I remember Ukraine was not going to get NATO membership.
      But a peace deal is going to include international peace keeping troops, which means foreign military is going to be closer to Russia than it was.
      Not to mention Finland joining nato, adding to the length of border that nato countries have with Russia.
      
      The second half of the post is pretty much on the mark though
      
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      March 15, 2025 2:05pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      “I’m anti-communist, so not a Putin sympathiser”
      Well that is just incoherent.
      Putin is in no way a Communist or a Marxist. He is now 72 years old and has been either President or Prime Minister of Russia for 25 years now. When did he ever try to move Russia back to communism?
      “Zelensky is a Marxist puppet”
      Neither Zelensky or the people behind him are Marxists either. Zelensky was a non-political comic actor for 20+ years and his supporters are all businessmen/oligarchs. Where is the Marxism there?
      You can’t just allow yourself to believe
      Communism = Marxism = Satan = Anything Evil.
      Specific terms have specific meanings.
      
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      March 15, 2025 7:56pm
  - RichardF
    
    No one seriously believes he has any intention of ‘taking over’ Canada. Or Greenland. They already have significant presence in Greenland so maybe an expansion of military personnel and bases etc.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:51am
    - MCōs
      
      He’d be removed as president if he tried to invade Canada, surely?
      However Canada is taking the threat more seriously than you are. Much to the dismay of the Opposition I would suspect
      
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      March 15, 2025 1:16pm
      - AitchW
        
        I’m pretty sure that His Majesty would take a dim view over one of the colonies becoming part of America.
        Whether he could do anything about it is another matter.
        
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        March 15, 2025 1:28pm
    - losingtheplot
      
      I think you’re right about Canada. But one of the consequences of the crazy talk there is Canada now hates on America quite happily across the board – left, right, centre. Its unified them politically on this issue in an instant. No different than NZ joining Australia. Over NZ’s dead body.
      
      Greenland on the other hand could quite happily be grabbed. Same playbook as Crimea. Increase the troops in the base. There are only 50k or so Greenlanders. Once you have enough, send out the troops and it’s all over in 24 hours. World gets angry for about 10 years, and then it moves on. Pay Denmark some compensation at some point and sign a treaty. Nato won’t go to war over Greenland (but they will kick US out at that point).
      
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      March 15, 2025 1:31pm
      - NeonTeepee
        
        I’d be perfectly happy for NZ to join Australia as a state, if only to get rid of the treaty nonsense
        
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        March 15, 2025 8:48pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Yvette: “How then does Trump present his aspirations (in timing and ambition) to annex Canada and Greenland”
    
    DID Trump say he wanted to “annex” Canada and Greenland? Got any receipts?
    
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    March 15, 2025 5:51pm
- Mike
  
  Trump thinks only he can make peace. Since Putin will reject peace on any reasonable terms that preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Trump will switch back to pressuring Ukraine to accept unreasonable terms.
  
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  March 15, 2025 8:17am
  - AitchW
    
    You may well be right. A just and honourable peace doesn’t matter to Trump. The only thing he genuinely values is ‘The Deal”.
    It matters not a jot to him what sort of shit storm he visits on the people of Ukraine and probably Europe so long as he can boast that he brokered a deal.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:46am
    - losingtheplot
      
      I agree. But I also think its worse than that. Trump and Putin believe in spheres of influence where the great powers get to do as they please.
      
      He’s prepared to give the Ukraine to Russia because in his head that’s Russia’s sphere of influence and if anyone objects its a european problem. In return, Russia stays out of Trumps way when he gets Greenland and doesn’t make waves about it.
      
      This also means China gets Taiwan and the South China Sea for the same reason.
      
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      March 15, 2025 1:36pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Russia would not be too happy about the US grabbing Canada & Greenland. Have a look at the map with its azimuth centred on the North Pole.
        
        Nor would China be happy. They see the newly ice-free North West Passage as part of Belt & Road.
        
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        March 15, 2025 5:10pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        The United States has believed in “Spheres of Influence” for at least 200 years, Donald Trump didn’t invent it.
        The Monroe Doctrine was publicly stated by President James Monroe in 1823 and
        “It holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine was central to American grand strategy in the 20th century.”
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine
        The problem is that after the end of the Cold War, the USA stopped recognizing anyone else’s sphere of influence as being legitimate (except for Israel’s of course).
        For the past 30 years Liberal Globalism has refused to accept that anyone has any legitimate security concerns if they clash with it’s own.
        That Liberal Global system has now collapsed, the Trump administration and certainly not Donald Trump himself, didn’t cause it to collapse, they have just recognized that it has, and are adjusting accordingly.
        
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        March 15, 2025 8:29pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    So twice now Putin has wanted peace, he wants clarification on 2 issues
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:04pm
  - Grunter
    
    NATO chief has just announced that Ukraines membership is now officially a “No”.
    
    One very good step forward to this mess.
    
    Now they just need to say no NATO boots on the ground and this would bring this to a close.
    
    A glimmer of hope but Zelenskyy will toss his toys and do God knows what.
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:07pm
  - Gussy Fink-Nottle
    
    Correct.
    • Very few others are making serious overtures to end the war.
    • Putin will not surrender everything he has gained in the last 3 years.
    • Ukraine will have to review its current position.
    
    I get it though – Europe wants to prolong the war and grind down Russia.
    Selectively applied concerns over ‘sovereignty’, and ‘territorial integrity’ (such as they are in a place like Ukraine) have FA to do with it.
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:37pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    “Trump thinks only he can make peace.”
    
    Really Mike? And how do you know this?
    
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    March 15, 2025 5:53pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  We can but hope. The bottom line is that Putin’s Russia is the aggressor in this war. Vlad needs to pack up the remains of his tanks and go home.
  
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  March 15, 2025 8:23am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    “Needs” eh? Not sure that us much of a plan.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:23am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He did it in Afghanistan when he couldn’t make ground
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:05pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      “He did it in Afghanistan when he couldn’t make ground”
      Who is this “He” you are referring to, is it Vladimir Putin?
      The Soviet Union (NOT Russia) withdrew from Afghanistan between 15 May 1988 and 15 February 1989 and Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader not Vladimir Putin, he was still in East Germany.
      You have got to get these timelines right for any of this to make sense.
      
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      March 15, 2025 8:54pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  This is the typical way in which Russia negotiates. They will obfuscate as long as they can to gain extra time to retake Kursk and gain as much ground as they can.
  
  It is up to the Trump regime to say “You have got seven days or else all hell will break loose and we will impose sanctions to make your eyes water. This will be Trump’s big test.
  
  Is he all bluster and bullshit just throwing his weight around or is he the real deal?
  
  We are living in interesting times.
  
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  March 15, 2025 8:27am
  - surfing
    
    Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle. Putin knows how to deal with loud mouth buffoons.
    
    The temporary freeze of US intelligence and weapons allowed Putin to nearly encircle Kursk … the Ukranian soldiers in side that circle are doomed. I see Trump is pleading for their lives, but he was the one who helped create the situation.
    
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    March 15, 2025 9:57am
    - kowtow
      
      The latest I read is they are withdrawing and not fully encircled .
      
      ps The Kursk incursion was never a genius military move , it was politics .
      Politicians killing their own citzens for some advantage .
      
      UK Daily Telegraph .
      
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      March 15, 2025 10:25am
  - JackRabbit
    
    The real issues with the Ukraine / Russian stand are complex and not aired by mainstream media. Zelensky is paid puppet, and the Ukraine has been used by the US deep state as a money laundering operation for USAID funds.
    
    Russia are not the enemy. The USA Deep State / USAID / The $War Machine is.
    
    As Sun Tzu said “Know your enemy.”
    
    People are focused on the wrong enemy. The biggest threat/enemy is internal. J D Vance has said exactly that.
    
    Russia is at war with NATO/USAID/US Deep State. The Ukraine is a pawn in a chess game.
    
    Relying on dishonest mainstream media does work with Treaty issues, Covid19/Vaccines, Climate change.
    
    Why should anyone trust mainstream media over the Ukraine, and that Zelensky (an actor) is a hero, and Putin the devil incarnate?
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:25am
    - losingtheplot
      
      You need a digital detox, buddy. The internet is 99% bullshit, and you’re losing the ability to sift real from not real.
      
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      March 15, 2025 1:45pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        It is you that needs a digital detox, buddy! As I already know the internet is both good and bad, but not 99% bullshit. If it is 99% bullshit to you, you’ve gone to all the wrong sites.
        
        I specialise in research and analytics, building systems, digital detoxing, getting people off the cloud, seeing through the AI bullshit, avoiding AI, and protecting personal data.
        
        And I was doing this at a time when current so called “internet experts” were still painting their nappies Karitane yellow.
        
        If you believe the internet is 99% bullshit, what are you doing on the internet?
        
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        March 15, 2025 3:09pm
      - losingtheplot
        
        @JackRabbit – sorry, fat fingers, reported your reply instead of replying 🙁
        
        Sturgeons law. With a bit added to the % because it’s the internet. Some of the stuff you post (like the nodules on the sea floor being possible evidence of past terraforming) leads me to think you’ve gone too far chasing the White Rabbit.
        
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        March 15, 2025 5:13pm
      - RichardX
        
        Losingtheplot, You don’t know the half of what Jack Rabbit believes.
        
        JackRabbit
        According to latest scientific theory based on similarities between old dilapidated structures on Mars and on Earth, and according to the US governments remote viewing project ‘Stargate’ several decades ago, a part of the Earth’s population may be long term descendants of colonists from Mars.
        
        Mars destroyed itself, probably in the same way the subsequent Atlantis colony destroyed itself. If you were a Martian Landing on earth, with plans for world domination, you would thank Jacinda for all her preparation work. If you were a freedom lover you utter, “oh no, not again” and throw support behind an Act / National government to get rid of the serpent in the new Garden of Eden.
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/09/general_debate_23_september_2020.html#comment-2807119
        
        As recently as last month JR was claiming this was “a matter of public record.” whatever the fuck that means but I’m assuming it means he read it somewhere on the internet!
        
        JackRabbit
        It is interesting that you think this is batshit crazy. It is a matter of public record.
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/02/general_debate_01_february_2025.html#comment-3675415
        
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        March 15, 2025 7:32pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        @losingtheplot
        
        You don’t have to agree with everything I post, just as I will not agree with everything you post, but stooping to personal attacks is an indicator of that which matches your username – losing the plot.
        
        Lets examine your premise that 95% of the internet is bullshit:
        
        The internet is an array of interconnected servers and storage mediums for the conveying of information:
        i.e. Email, online banking, online portals for importing, exporting, buying, selling, viewing websites etc. So you believe that 95% of that is bullshit.
        
        Please respond which of the above is bullshit.
        
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        March 15, 2025 8:01pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        @RichardX
        
        [Debate the points raised. mod.]
        
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        March 15, 2025 8:03pm
- Grunter
  
  The Russians have repeatedly said that a ceasefire with no sensible plan to stop the entire war is a no-go. I have yet to read what the US-Ukraine plan is to stop the war. So a 30 day ceasefire will never happen unless Russia are given a sense that Trump can offer up solutions to rectify what Russia sees as the causes of the war. They won’t stop until Ukraine is truely neutral in every way. The Russians have been clear and consistent on that for more than 3 years. They do not want Ukraine to be part of NATO.
  
  Many will disagree with allowing Russia to have this position. Fair enough, but what is the alternative? Using force (many more men, guns, bombs and drones) in an attempt to change Putins mind will simply escalate the war. Get rid of Putin and the Russian hardliners take over.
  
  The mad Zelenskyy meanwhile continues to mouth off over night, accusing Putin of being manipulative and demanding conditions on the ceasefire agreement he has with Trump.
  
  I predict that this will go no where. The war will get worse. By next year we will see a full on European war with Russia. NZ will support this with Kiwis on the battle front.
  
  So, for those that want to have a war with Russia, I think that you will soon get your wish. Keep those war drums beating, send our young men off to Europe again……..
  
  This is simply bonkers!!
  
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  March 15, 2025 8:35am
  - NothingLeft
    
    The causes of the war is that Putin wants to recreate Russian empire, and didn’t see Ukraine and west as having sufficient strength or backbone to stop him.
    
    The only way the war ends is with Russia being beaten or seeing no way forward due to defense with real teeth, or perhaps with Putin deposed (though possible his replacement continues hegemonic agenda as excuse for maintaining repressive control of Russian polity). Anything else is just delaying tactics while Russia reconstitutes for next phase of their westward offensives.
    
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    March 15, 2025 9:24am
    - Andrei
      
      Nonsense- as anybody who is awake knows the cause of this war has been NATO’s expansion, like a necrotic tumour it has eaten up all of post Christian Europe where people argue over what a woman is.
      
      The West is a decadent dying pathetic shadow of itself
      
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      March 15, 2025 9:52am
      - Northshoredoc
        
        Is this a parody post … I’m finding it difficult to tell these days.
        
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        March 15, 2025 10:07am
      - herb1
        
        Russia knows the cause of the war is their Imperial ambitions . They know everyone knows except Trump and This war wasn’t about NATO expansion,this war Caused NATO expansion.
        
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        March 15, 2025 10:13am
      - kowtow
        
        Whereas if you disagree with Putin and his oligarchy you have a high window ‘accident’.
        
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        March 15, 2025 10:29am
      - NothingLeft
        
        LOL. The fundamental problem is that Putin runs a shit mafia/kleptocratic regime that robs his economy blind to feed a few Mafia dons, stops any useful business development and keeps Russia and it’s vassals dirt poor – meaning all the talent leaves and the countries on the edges see better futures in joining up to free western economies where entrepreneurship is rewarded with something other than regime backed extortion and murder.
        
        So Putin has had to gradually ramp up repression to hold together then rotting corpse of Russia, and needs ongoing war to justify his violent subjugation of dissent. So he’s started war with Ukraine after the Ukrainians voted out his puppet regime in 2014, after doing similar in Dagestan/Chechnya and Georgia to maintain control
        
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        March 15, 2025 10:43am
      - Lance
        
        “The West is a decadent dying pathetic shadow of itself”
        ……………. Bra ha ha ha ha ha ha
        You forgot to say “capitialist running dogs”
        
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        March 15, 2025 11:15am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Well that’s all very nice and tidy. Why don’t you pop along and tell Putin that this is the new plan. Don’t stand near any 4th floor windows while you do it.
      
      Let us know how you get on.
      
      Putin is going to get everything he wants, and NATO and the EU are getting their arses handed to them.
      
      The EU by canceling elections to “protect democracy” as defined by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, is busy hammering nails into the coffin of its ability to claim the moral high ground. The non- aligned world has been taking notes.
      
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      March 15, 2025 11:28am
    - JackRabbit
      
      NothingLeft
      
      You have to stop relying on the mainstream media narrative.
      
      Russia is not the real enemy, and neither is the Ukraine. USA Deep State/USAID/The $War Machine is.
      
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      March 15, 2025 11:32am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Murderous megalomaniacal hegemonic despots like Putin and Xi (and the few other dozen smaller scale monsters in power around the world) are ALWAYS the enemy.
        
        Unaccountable bureaucracies tend to morph into enemies of the population they rule, but are less outright evil until they reach a tipping point of unchecked power accreting autocracy, a point we are close to in the west with ‘deep state’ oligarchs and elitist ‘blob’.
        
        In both cases what is missing is accountability to those they rule over, but western bureaucracies can still be defanged without killing tens of millions (not so for the despots).
        
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        March 15, 2025 2:25pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate Ardern, and the trail of vaccine deaths and injuries?
        
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        March 15, 2025 3:13pm
      - kiwimike
        
        No
        Russia & China and the UN are the real enemy for democratic nations.
        Helped by IRAN, Qatar, Turkey, North Korea Pakistan, Afghanistan and prob Saudi Arabia.
        
        The EU would be 3rd String with Venezuela and South Africa and the rest of the OIC.
        
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        March 15, 2025 3:34pm
    - Grunter
      
      War it is then. As Einstein once said, “I don’t know what weapons will be used in WW3, but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones”
      
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      March 15, 2025 11:46am
  - David Garrett
    
    Grunter: There is no way any NZ government would send our troops to fight a war against Russia…but I agree that a European wide war is not out of the question the way things are going.
    
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    March 15, 2025 9:25am
    - Cassandra
      
      Unlikely. When push comes to shove both sides will back off. But there’s certainly more to come. Trump will look like a loser if there’s no ceasefire so I think we’ll see some real pressure now. Whether it’s on Ukraine or Russia remains to be seen but I expect it’ll be on Russia bigly.
      
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      March 15, 2025 9:31am
      - losingtheplot
        
        I expect otherwise. Reality on the ground is that Ukraine is losing and Russia has no incentive to stop the meat grinder.
        
        Putin will throw him a bone to allow Trump to claim a win and avoid the loss of face when he’s strung this out for as long as he can. We’re not there yet.
        
        Payoff for Trump is not negotiating a ceasefire. Ukraine is a nothing to him. It’s giving Putin what he wants in Ukraine, and in return Putin gives Trump what he wants somewhere else. Greenland springs to mind.
        
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        March 15, 2025 1:59pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Ukraine losing? If this is Russia ‘winning’ then it is the very definition of Pyrrhic 400k casualties and almost all their remaining stocks of tanks, APCs and guns gone in last year to gain 0.2% of Ukraine consisting of rubblized villages and mine-infested land with all infrastructure destroyed.
        
        Ukraine has developed drone weapons that put very few of it’s people in harms way, by taking a dug-in slowly retreating defensive posture relying upon deep drone attritive defense of ever widening no-mans-land where Russia takes terrible loses for every meter gained the loss ratio are between 5 and 10:1 in Ukraine’s favour now. They can hold on for another year at least, where Russia will seriously struggle having run out of materiel and finding it hard to raise more troops given the catastrophic scale of their losses and appalling treatment of their troops.
        
        If Europe decides to support Ukraine militarily with offensive weapons in a meaningful way then Russia is fucked.
        
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        March 15, 2025 2:41pm
    - herb1
      
      David , Russia planned a 3 day war that after 3 years they are barely ahead of their 2014 annexation boundaries, for a loss of over 840.000 soldiers 10200 tanks etc and trillions of dollars in cost. They have so few vehicles left to transport the materiel they need on the frontlines they’ve resorted to donkeys and civilian vehicles. Attacking Europe would be an even stupider move than attacking Ukraine was. Nuclear weapons are the only ace that Putin has , however using them would be the end of his country
      
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      March 15, 2025 10:18am
    - Jethrod
      
      David, surely after 3 years, Russia would be foolish in the extreme to contemplate a wider war. Up against fresh troops his forces would wilt under the pressure. So much so Putin would have to then consider the ultimate threat just as Europe is knocking on Moscow’s door.
      
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      March 15, 2025 11:12am
  - Greenheart
    
    [Mod – debate the topic not the person]
    
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    March 15, 2025 9:50am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Grunter,
    
    Well said. And don’t stop saying it. Your down-tickers have bought the mainstream media narrative.
    
    So a 30 day ceasefire will never happen unless Russia are given a sense that Trump can offer up solutions to rectify what Russia sees as the causes of the war.
    
    And the real causes of the war are never mentioned in the mainstream media narratives.
    
    The mainstream media is all theatre. A literal “Wag the Dog” in live action.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:35am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I would have thought the 30 day ceasefire would allow for dialogue
    
    7 3
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    March 15, 2025 12:06pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Putin is not interested in stopping, as he still imagines he can grab more Ukrainian land and extract more concessions. Trump’s supine approach is assisting Putin in that belief. Putin won’t stop until Europe and/or USA draws a line in the sand that Putin actually believes will be enforced.
      
      6 5
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      March 15, 2025 2:31pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    “NZ will support this with Kiwis on the battle front.”
    Please try to sketch out a reasonable scenario where NZ sends soldiers to a battle front in Europe.
    
    2 0
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    March 15, 2025 9:02pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  As I have posted before IMHO Putin doesnt want this war to end. He may sign peace agreements but like Hitler he will break them. He wants to re-establish the old Russian Empire or as much of it as he can. He knows the West doesnt want WW3 and wont start firing nukes at him. He is 72 so he doesnt have forever to achieve his goals.
  I dont know what the answer is as he is the agressor and holds the cards as regards peace in the region. Even if he is taken out from what I can see his replacements want the same as he does some appear to be even worse as regards attacking the West if its gets in their way.
  Hopefully The Donald and his advisers have a long term solution to the problem.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:03am
  - Andrei
    
    Didn’t take long to Godwin this post
    The long term solution is obvious – disband NATO, it is a dinosaur whose day is done
    
    12 31
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    March 15, 2025 9:21am
    - Mike
      
      Not much chance of NATO disbandibg while Russia is theatening, and invading, its neighbors. All Putin has succeeded in doing to NATO is strengthening it by the addition of Sweden and Finland.
      
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      March 15, 2025 10:11am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yes, and did he not say adding any country to NATO would mean nukes
        
        8 2
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        March 15, 2025 12:08pm
    - Lance
      
      Is Andrei just dear old Vlad himself posting under a pseudonym or just a Russian shill?
      Good grief, you seem to be saying ‘do away with any self-protection and just trust Putin to do the right and decent thing’.
      
      7 4
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      March 15, 2025 11:20am
      - Mike
        
        Not Vlad himself, just a denizen of the St Petersburg troll farm.
        
        7 6
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        March 15, 2025 12:39pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      …disband NATO… NATO, gun for hire to protect or take Oil/Minerals/assets in foreign countries.
      
      NATO/USA Deep State/USAID are the real enemy.
      
      6 6
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      March 15, 2025 11:39am
    - Taieri
      
      The long term solution is obvious – disband NATO, it is a dinosaur whose day is done
      ——————
      
      And pay homage to the New Russian Empire and its Tsar, His Imperial Highness Vladimir the Great, the Dawn of Hope and the Saviour of all humankind…
      
      7 5
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      March 15, 2025 12:11pm
      - alwyn.a
        
        You missed out one of his honorifics.
        He reminds me of his 15th century namesake Prince Vlad the Impaler. Perhaps he could be known as Vlad the Great Impaler?
        
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        March 15, 2025 3:06pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Half a million 2000km range 100-500kg payload AI targeting drones (to deal with jamming) in storage in a few 1000 bases throughout eastern European countries would stop him and his successors for good. Cost less than $10billion.
    
    8 5
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    March 15, 2025 9:30am
    - thirteenstars
      
      You do realise, at some point, an attack with conventional weapons is the same as one with nukes. You don’t get to throw your hands up in the air and say to Putin, nope, you can’t use nukes because we didn’t.
      
      But you do illustrate the dangerous situation the war-at-any-cost ideology is liable to put us all in, an escalation that becomes uncontrollable and more difficult to predict.
      
      That’s what Trump means by bringing on WW3. In a conventional war the US could defeat Russia with one arm tied behind its back but Russia would never allow that to happen. This ain’t WW2 but if you truly believe Putin is Hitler then ask yourself what Hitler would have done if he’d had nuclear weapons.
      
      8 3
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      March 15, 2025 11:02am
      - NothingLeft
        
        But we are not going to see anyone sane using nuke first strike (Iran is the nutty special case) – everyone knows it’s suicide. Russia is only going to launch wars of conquest on weak, easily defeated targets using conventional weapons where they can bank on scaring off outside assistance with their legacy nuke arsenal. But the credibility of that threat is almost gone.
        
        Being able to escalate beyond any realistic defense with conventional weapons is the way to stop Russian and Chinese (and other) aggression dead in its tracks, defense costs 10-100x offense, and mass produced deep strike drones costing $5-10k each (similar to production cost of a motorbike) makes overwhelming offense easy to do, at least until or unless laser missile defense becomes cheap and effective – which is unlikely any time soon.
        
        Cheap drones give you the stability of MAD without needing nukes, without needing enormous standing armies – or putting large numbers of front line troops at risk, and open up options for progressive escalation of response.
        
        8 4
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        March 15, 2025 1:47pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “But the credibility of that threat is almost gone.”
        
        It’s armchair geopolitical insanity like that that will bring on the exact thing you suppose cannot happen.
        
        Again, if you think Putin is akin to Hitler–and he must be because Trump is apparently an appeasing Chamberlain–then what would Hitler have done given the prospect of defeat?
        
        5 3
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        March 15, 2025 4:31pm
- Cassandra
  
  My proofreading is getting as bad as G x Dunedin. It’s Witkoff and Russia.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:28am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    My proof reading is fine, often the spelling changes when I send, it is only on my phone it happens, it doesn’t happen on PC, do you really think my spelling would be that bad?
    
    4 5
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    March 15, 2025 12:09pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Yes 😆
      
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      March 15, 2025 12:46pm
- Eastlander
  
  ‘Give our side a breather’ is not a serious offer, even if the Ukrainians actually wanted a ceasefire which they don’t.
  
  12 7
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  March 15, 2025 9:28am
  - Ghost
    
    And you know they don’t want a ceasefire? 53% polled want a quick end to the war
    
    https://news.gallup.com/poll/653495/half-ukrainians-quick-negotiated-end-war.aspx
    
    9 3
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    March 15, 2025 9:31am
    - herb1
      
      A ceasefire isn’t a quick end to the war. It just allows Russia to regroup and fatboy Kim to send more weapons and artillery shells
      
      2 5
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      March 15, 2025 10:20am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      The people don’t matter. It is the unelected bureaucrats that run the place. Ukrainian people are pawns and cannon fodder. Their views are unimportant, unless they manage to run away before they are herded off the the front for their short moment of glory for the motherland.
      
      5 2
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      March 15, 2025 11:30am
    - JackRabbit
      
      The Ukraine people want a ceasefire, Zelensky’s masters do not. The Ukraine people do not control the Ukraine govt. If you recall Zelensky cancelled the elections.
      
      The Ukraine people have been brainwashed into believing the mainstream media narrative about Russia being the enemy, and that Zelensky is their saviour, in the same way the NZ public were brainwashed to believe that Ardern was our saviour and only source of truth. How did that work out?
      
      People need to stop selectively trusting the mainstream media.
      
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      March 15, 2025 11:46am
      - Lance
        
        W…….T…….F………….
        
        “The Ukraine people have been brainwashed into believing the mainstream media narrative about Russia being the enemy”
        
        Seriously?
        
        Murder, death, bombings, attacks, rape, wholesale destruction and theft are all just ‘boys will be boys’
        
        Your reality cheque just bounced
        
        4 4
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        March 15, 2025 3:48pm
    - Eastlander
      
      Zelensky and his cabinet have the power and they’re not interested. The last time they seriously considered coming to terms was in April 2022, then they shot their negotiator and decided they’d fight until victory, which they still think will happen if they hold on long enough. The army is even more determined to keep fighting as they have a cause to defend, a lost war and fallen comrades to avenge, and jobs to protect.
      
      Trump had to threaten the Ukrainian government to get them to sign on even to this non-starter. There is very little chance they’d agree to making a serious offer.
      
      5 2
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      March 15, 2025 3:09pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Polls like this are virtually useless.
      Just look at the all the technical problems, country at war, significant areas under Russian control, done by phone, no numbers of participants noted, no percentage of refusals noted (the people who refused to take the call is not the same as the number who took the call but refused to answer the question), no margin of error shown.
      Or they are WORSE than useless as they are used to advance a particular propagandistic narrative with survey results that support the current thing included and all others excluded.
      
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      March 15, 2025 9:24pm
- Interested Party
  
  Trumps can take economic sanctions to the next level, that would cause some pain for a already faltering Russian economy
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:37am
- Jules99
  
  What’s the point of a 30 day ceasefire? Everyone re-arms and the war continues. Russian rules of engagement don’t include ceasefires and never have. Trump knows this. Wouldn’t be surprised if a peace deal has already been fleshed out behind the scenes – the rest is theatre designed to warm everyone to the terms agreed.
  
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  March 15, 2025 2:27pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    I don’t think Trumps knows much at all about the prosecution of international conflicts or the realpolitik and trust-basis of international relations. He’s a dilettante at best.
    
    2 6
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    March 15, 2025 2:51pm
- kiwimike
  
  surely that means Russia not resupply too.
  so no drones or missles from abroad or within Russia???
  
  3 1
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  March 15, 2025 3:20pm
- pb
  
  If this agreement proceeds it will be Minsk 3. Putin, currently dressed in camo Fatigues, isn’t gunna go for it. Fool me thrice sort of vibe. Zelenski is already laying down impossible red lines. This war will grind the Ukrainians into dust.
  
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  March 15, 2025 3:41pm
artemisia

Woollies looking at a restructure following a trial in 4 stores for 6 months after identifying efficiencies and to improve customer focus.

Efficiencies like distributing tasks more evenly across different store areas and getting items onto shelves so customers can actually purchase them. Possibly more customer focus to identify customers slipping the fillet steak under the waist band.

Efficiencies and improved customer focus sound like initiatives that should be top of mind for any organisation. Maybe even those funded by taxpayers.

Each shop would have the same number of staff but they would be more focused on customers. Woolworths said more than half the staff in the trial had felt it was an improvement.

First Union national retail organiser Ross Lampert has a different idea – Many of the problems highlighted as reasons for the restructure could be solved with more staffing, Lampert said. “They implement everything else under the sun, rather than getting more people on the floor…”.

There’s a surprise.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/544852/woolworths-staff-anxious-scared-about-restructure
22 1
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March 15, 2025 8:06am
- sungsamning
  
  Maybe they could have tills manned when customers are waiting. Instead they have counter jumpers standing around doing nothing obviously useful. Pak N Save are better.
  
  6 2
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  March 15, 2025 8:10am
- kowtow
  
  So focussed on stocking the shelves and the click and collect carts they don’t give a f@#k about the ‘instore’ customer , who ,one gets the impression they’d rather not have.
  
  And the bottom line is always just that , not the ‘customer” but the contents of his wallet .
  That’s fine , but let’s not pretend it’s about the ‘customer” per se , it never is.
  
  12 4
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  March 15, 2025 8:50am
  - Flossie
    
    Can you name a business that’s there for a reason other than to make a profit!
    
    15 1
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    March 15, 2025 9:45am
    - kowtow
      
      Crikey you missed my point entirely !
      
      2 4
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      March 15, 2025 10:36am
- pdm
  
  arty – Countdown Hastings is our nearest Supermarket but we only use it as a dairy for convenience shopping – average spend a visit $10/12 I would think.
  
  There are two things they could do to make our visits more pleasant and therefore tempt us back for bigger spends.
  1. Have quick service (say 10 or less items) checkouts open all of the time.
  2. Have packers at all main checkouts.
  
  I do not and will not use self checkouts.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:38am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghw_cJcGsP8
Drama in Reform.
Reform leadership screwed the pooch trying to throw Rupert Lowe under the bus, this is ugly for the Party and the members. This needs to be fixed behind closed doors. We have a Country to fix.
6 2
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March 15, 2025 8:11am
- I remember when
  
  Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party raised 4.5 million pounds last year, up from less than 160,000 pounds in 2023.
  The Times analysed every donation.
  They found an influx in funding from fossil fuel investors, climate skeptics and multimillionaires.
  A third of the money came from former donors to the Conservative Party.
  
  Any clues here for any NZ political party?
  
  11 1
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  March 15, 2025 9:54am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, I’m sure there are some. No infighting, and no looking down ones nose at people that are the wrong class.
    
    3 1
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    March 15, 2025 11:46am
sungsamning

https://thefederalist.com/2025/03/13/house-republicans-move-to-block-chinese-nationals-from-obtaining-u-s-stu
House Republicans Move To Block Chinese Nationals From Obtaining U.S. Student Visas.
A coalition of House GOP lawmakers is gearing up to introduce legislation preventing Chinese nationals from obtaining U.S. student visas, according to a new report.
On Wednesday, Fox News revealed that Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., is preparing to file the Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act, or the “Stop CCP VISAs Act,” later this week. The legislation, according to the outlet, is intended to block what the congressman contended is Beijing’s “exploitation” of America’s student visa program to undermine U.S. interests.
7 3
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March 15, 2025 8:11am
NeverMindTheBollocks

The very definition of irony. A man who made his Facebook billions from free speech has gained an injunction against a tell-all book about his business.

Rules for thee but not for me.

http://www.huffpost.com/entry/meta-tell-all-book-careless-people_n_67d3113ce4b0e72dd7fee033/amp
16 1
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March 15, 2025 8:20am
- sungsamning
  
  He has been into free speech since Trump won. Before that, not so much.
  
  8 2
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  March 15, 2025 11:46am
- Philview
  
  My children are on social media so I get to see some of the anti-Trump content and it is saturated coverage. Much of it is fake, an example I saw the other day was a video of Trump doing the full Hitler salute in front of supporters in the street. It looked real so people will be sucked in by that stuff.
  
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  March 15, 2025 1:12pm
Yvette

The 2023 Election-canned part-completed Willie Jackson Report on UNDRIP, which is probably pertinent to the Treaty Principles Bill “nation-wide Ardernian conversation”?

When considering Richard Prebble’s letter of resignation, Tribunal Chief Judge Dr Caren Fox said Prebble referred to the Tribunal’s strategic review, which … was still a draft and had only been sent to stakeholders. To be clear, We the people are the stakeholders: the information contained in the Tribunal’s strategic review belongs to us … Withholding the Tribunal’s draft strategic review from us is He Puapua all over again. Having done it with impunity, they have become emboldened and do it routinely. [1]

The other draft which must ultimately also belong to New Zealanders and surely at least is available to Winston Peters, David Seymour and others, is the response of selected Maori to UNDRIP and He Puapua –

The Māori Development Minister [Willie Jackson] is hopeful the authors of a draft United Nations’ Declaration Plan will have a proposal he can take to Cabinet when he meets with them on Friday.
In June [2022] a first draft was delivered to Jackson, but the minister never took it to Cabinet for consideration because he knew his colleagues wouldn’t support it.
… he wasn’t comfortable with about 20 percent of what had been proposed and had asked the governance group | to go back and try again. [2]

Where now is the draft which Willie Jackson “never took it to Cabinet for consideration because he knew his colleagues wouldn’t support it” since that is surely the genuine response of the Maori who Labour asked to comment on He Puapua?

Co-governance plan kicked down the road to 2024 – Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson signalled … on Monday he got the support of his ministerial colleagues to kick the can past next year’s Election and into 2024. “While we made significant progress this year … we were not able to finalise a draft declaration plan by the original July 2022 deadline, which in turn meant we could not conduct consultation with the public in the second half of 2022 as planned” December 23, 2022 [3]

So, Willie Jackson has a report sitting in a drawer or on a shelf somewhere, while it is probably crucial to present Treaty discussions – a report that belongs to all New Zealanders and may encapsulate Maori aspirations and how much they would alternatively translate the Treaty to achieve them

[If the People are in fact sovereign] … that requires there must be no hiding of information, such as He Puapua and the Tribunal’s strategic review. Let’s not forget: We own that information and as the people who are withholding it from us are our public servants, we own them too. By withholding our information from us they are committing theft as a servant. Irrespective of whatever lame excuses they come up with, they are jeopardizing our democracy when they attempt to control us with misleading propaganda or incomplete information. [1]

How many Maori submissions to the present Justice Committee, considering the Treaty Principles Bill, differ to what they actually said in the 70 hui Maori / Willie Jackson response to UNDRIP?

__________
[1] https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/03/barrie-davis-principle-of-sovereignty.html
[2] https://newsroom.co.nz/2022/10/18/cabinet-still-waiting-on-co-governance-draft-plan/
[3] https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300773028/cogovernance-plan-kicked-down-the-road-to-2024
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March 15, 2025 8:22am
- pdm
  
  Yvette – wee Willie Jackson will never answer the questions you raise.
  
  He is a devious little man.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:41am
  - Yvette
    
    Pdm, I am hoping David Seymour, soon to be Deputy Prime Minister, or Winston Peters as last act as present Deputy Prime Minister, will access or demand access to the Report of the Maori Response to the 70 Hui on Co-governance or He Puapua, which is State property (not Jackson’s private project) and reveal in what way Maori Elite would aspire to interpret the Treaty – something they accuse David Seymour or ACT of proposing, although their possible law says the Treaty would remain untouched.
    
    20 1
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    March 15, 2025 9:56am
    - Ghost
      
      He Puapua Can be read at. https://www.tpk.govt.nz/documents/download/documents-1732-A/Proactive%20release%20He%20Puapua.pdf
      
      You can also do some other reading at
      https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/a-matou-whakaarotau/te-ao-maori/un-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples
      
      7 4
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      March 15, 2025 10:03am
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Yvette isnt asking for TePuapua, she is asking for the response to TePuapua from the many Hui that Jackson attended while consulting with maori. Note these were meetings he attended in the capacity of government on the taxpayer funded dime. The information belongs to us all, not Willie Jackson.
        
        Because we have no information we then can only speculate. Whatever Jackson was told was not safe to share at this time. It would out maori aspirations for power and control and evoke a massive public backlash.
        
        18 1
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        March 15, 2025 10:24am
      - AitchW
        
        PL you don’t really believe that there would be any accurate record of those hui do you? If any notes were made Jackson would have had them edited to promote his personal aims.
        Besides, would would have the fortitude to read through the screeds of mind numbingly boring ramblings of Kaumatua who imagine themselves brilliant orators.
        
        9 0
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        March 15, 2025 11:52am
- Burtland
  
  Labour – the government of hidden agendas
  
  “most transparent government ever”
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:07am
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: Fertilizer is Still…
The Democrat platform

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/friday-funnies-fertilizer-is-still?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 15, 2025 8:27am
- sungsamning
  
  Thanks for these.
  
  4 2
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  March 15, 2025 11:57am
  - Bridgenag
    
    There are amazing people out there. Went to the Civic in Auckland with all the Maorification but the biggest shock was the humourless. dowdy , downtrodden Kiwis there. Very sad
    
    5 2
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    March 15, 2025 12:29pm
Yvette

The short version –

How many Maori submissions to the present Justice Committee, considering the Treaty Principles Bill, differ to what they actually said in the 70 hui Maori / Willie Jackson response to UNDRIP? – a report shelved by Willie Jackson for the Election but waiting to be revived when Labour next wins an Election, and possibly has te Pati Maori and their own Labour Maori Caucus to blackmail them into implementation?
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March 15, 2025 8:31am
- I remember when
  
  Is this the ‘Golden Age’ of being Maori?
  At present anyone with a ‘smidgen’ of Maori ancestry can call themselves Maori.
  This is almost encouraged, as it increases the perentage of Maori in the population justifying their ‘special’ position.
  However, when it comes to distribution the percentage can be expected to decrease considerably, as they will need to have acceptance as belonging to an iwi.
  Any bets on this becoming a ‘bone of contention’ once distribution is the driver.
  
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  March 15, 2025 10:23am
- imalwaysright
  
  Apparently the attendance at Willlie Jackson’s country wide hui was a combined total of less than 400 people for the entire 70 events.
  An average of less than 6 people per hui.
  Subtract Willie, a couple of his staff, and the caretaker to unlock the venue, and we are left with a couple of people per hui !
  
  Hardly representative of the pulse of maoridom, more like they turned their backs on him.
  
  12 1
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  March 15, 2025 10:34am
  - AitchW
    
    I wonder how much koha changed hands? How much kai moana?
    
    7 0
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    March 15, 2025 1:34pm
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/tauranga-automotive-business-fined-200-for-parking-clients-unlicensed-car-on-a-road/6HPORO4JDBHFHIJOQ2R5DGGGRA/

This is council at worst. Applying parking law with no discretion.

Tauranga council is still a mess, and when they behave like this I only have more contempt for them.
20 2
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March 15, 2025 8:55am
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Many a citizen has been hurt by the uncaring unthinking mass that is government – be it local or National. However when that uncaring mass is also incentivised by revenue collection then it can become outright war on the citizenry. The war on our wallets is morally elevated by the climate religion war on the car. Auckland city is very good at waging this war on its citizens too. So good I almost never go into parts of the CBD and Newmarket. One wrong decision in unfamiliar surrounds can cost $150.
  
  The individual ticket collector in Tauranga is like a fisherman who has a spot that always produces a plethora of fish. He will just keep on going back as it is a guaranteed source of easy revenue. Unfortunately I think the mechanic will be more successful moving their business than attempting to get the blob to change.
  
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  March 15, 2025 10:32am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  “Robertson said when he challenged the fine, a council officer told him if a vehicle failed a warrant of fitness check, he needed to call the owner to collect it and drive it to their home.”
  The Council are discombobulated. Why would the owner collect the car and drive it home when Autoworld Papamoa is a WOF testing garage, a repair and service center? The Council may not know that a vehicle has to have a current WOF before it can be registered. Also Autoworld is not the vehicle owner so why are they fined?
  Council are out of order.
  
  11 1
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  March 15, 2025 10:40am
  - Hollyfield
    
    The council is probably facing pushback from multiple car owners that they shouldn’t pay the fine as they didn’t park the car on the road.
    The article didn’t say this, but maybe the business was fined because they are effectively using the road as their business premises. If the business parked the unwarranted cars on their own premises they would not have this problem.
    
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    March 15, 2025 2:01pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      The vehicle owner should be paying the fine.
      The business was not fined for using the road, the business was fined because a vehicle they don’t own had no WOF.
      Council rort!!
      
      5 1
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      March 15, 2025 3:02pm
  - Paulus
    
    That’s anything that the Tauranga huge staffed Council can think to do.
    It is out of control except for certain aspects. principally Maori.
    
    7 0
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    March 15, 2025 2:08pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Is the vehicle owner not Maori? Pity……
      
      4 1
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      March 15, 2025 3:10pm
redeye

Hypocracy leading the way in the fight against the climate.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of Australian software giant Atlassian, took to LinkedIn on Thursday to explain his decision to purchase a Bombardier 7500, an aircraft believed to cost upwards of US$75m (AU$119.2m), according to Business Insider.

It followed a report in The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window column the aircraft was confirmed to be Mr Cannon-Brookes’ and was spotted at Sunshine Coast and Essendon airports and had recently made a trip to London around the launch of the Formula One, where Atlassian sponsors a team.

…

Mr Cannon-Brookes said he has an “extremely rigorous carbon regime” for flying as he uses “direct air capture and sustainable fuels for the carbon and contrails” which allows him “to far exceed” his flight footprint.

https://www.skynews.com.au/business/finance/climate-activist-tech-billionaire-mike-cannonbrookes-laments-deep-internal-conflict-over-purchasing-private-jet/news-story/cfd132e5a861e8695c58c401a9805554
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March 15, 2025 8:58am
- Cassandra
  
  People like this must think the rest of us are stupid. This is classic f@#%£ing for virginity. The hypocrisy is staggering.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:20am
  - greybeard
    
    Maybe Liza McCartney can hitch a ride with him when she next has a pole-vault competition overseas.
    
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    March 15, 2025 10:30am
    - rouppe
      
      Thank goodness she composts her food.
      
      By which I assume she means food scraps. Why would you compost perfectly good food?
      
      And of course it’s “the system” that “she’s trapped in” that requires all the flying. What is the alternative for athletics competitions? Round them all up and have them in an athletics gulag where they all compete fine and again in the same place?
      
      She chose her profession. Own it, don’t make excuses.
      
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      March 15, 2025 2:28pm
Dudley Quaffquaff

People have been citing Canada’s long standing tariffs on milk imports as a justification for US tariffs against Canadian imports.

The difference here, is that Canada’s dairy tariffs are allowed for under the US-Canada-Mexico trade agreement signed by President Trump in his previous term.

The form of all trade agreements is basically “no tariffs or quotas except those listed in the Annex” and the negotiating process is about trying to reduce the contents of the Annex, by giving up some of yours in exchange for the others giving up some of theirs. Agreement is reached when everybody feels they’ve got enough and it’s not worth giving up any more.

Of course you can go back later and ask to reopen the negotiation to reduce the Annex still further, or to add something into it. The other side will ask what you’re willing to give that they want in order for you to get what you want, and away you go again. That’s legit.

Not legit: breaking the terms of the agreement. That’s what the US tariffs are doing, and Canada’s milk quota + tariff does not.
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March 15, 2025 8:59am
- Cassandra
  
  I’m reminded of Australian restrictions on NZ apples because of some vague disease suspicion/excuse.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:21am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    They did, and we took them to the World Trade Organisation for arbitration, and the WTO ruled that their action was not justified and told them to stop.
    
    That is, or was, the benefit of having internationally agreed trade rules, particularly for small countries which wouldn’t otherwise have any means of redress against bullying by larger economies.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:36am
  - AitchW
    
    If I remember correctly the Aussies blocked our apples to prevent importing fireblight despite there being no record of that disease ever occurring here.
    Aussie authorities knew that yet refused to allow our apples into Aussie. When they eventually capitulated Aussies were blown away by how much better our apples were than their jealously protected varieties!
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:57am
- Phronesis
  
  If Canada doesn’t want to trade with the US then no one is forcing it too.
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:24am
  - Cassandra
    
    Canada exports $482 billion to US, imports $442 billion. Big deal for both countries.
    
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    March 15, 2025 9:34am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    They do want to trade with the US, on the terms that the US agreed to. Now that the US has demonstrated that they don’t feel they have any obligation to abide by the terms of agreements they sign, Canada can and will look elsewhere for more reliable trading partners. They will find those more easily than the US will.
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:41am
- Burtland
  
  NZ has remained strangely silent on Canada breaking our trade deal over milk
  
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  March 15, 2025 9:35am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    There’s an arbitration process that all parties agreed to. It’s being followed. That’s what you do unless you want anarchy in international trade. It seems that President Trump does want that, but why people in a small economy that doesn’t have the economic, political or military clout to survive, let alone thrive in a rules-free environment would agree with him is beyond me
    
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    March 15, 2025 11:56am
  - Jack5
    
    ere’s the RNZ summary on the NZ-Canada dairy dispute:
    
    The dispute centred on the ability of New Zealand exporters to use Canada’s 16 dairy tariff rate quotas, which allow a certain amount of produce either tariff free or at a low rate and when that is filled a higher tariff applies to further volumes.
    
    The panel found that Canada was granting priority access to its own domestic dairy processors, and was also keeping out local retailers who would have been potential buyers of New Zealand produce.
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/497363/new-zealand-wins-trade-dispute-with-canada-over-dairy-access
    
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    March 15, 2025 12:00pm
- pb
  
  Canada needs to go back to providing cheap lumber and oil to its colonial masters. As is Australia and New Zealand deemed. Only a supplier of cheap industrial and agricultural products. Step outside your prison, and be warned. The American Civil war was fought over taxes on the souths agricultural exports. Trumps push is another of Abe’s grand designs.
  
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  March 15, 2025 3:22pm
Pope Punctilious II

Is Seymour the only government MP who objects to compulsory treaty indoctrination at Auckland Uni? https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/david-seymour-slams-auckland-universitys-compulsory-te-tiriti-course/GRIAH4SL3NB43EBTPBW7CZFWVU/

Why should taxpayers partly fund a compulsory course that imparts a highly tendentious interpretation of arguably the single most contentious issue in NZ political history, and why should students be forced to pay to take the course?

Does this fall under the Minister of Education’s remit? If so, has she had anything to say about it? Some people on this site claim that the current government’s options are constrained by the woke, left-leaning character of the electorate. Well, that “lean” didn’t happen by accident. It happened because progressive activists gained control of our institutions, and indoctrinated much of the younger half of the population – the current situation at Auckland Uni is just one example. If the current government is to change our long-term trajectory, it needs to wrest control of our institutions back from the activists.
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March 15, 2025 9:29am
- Burtland
  
  the younger generation have fully bought into maori wonderfulness
  – they will bear the consequences of the hidden apartheid agenda
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:22am
  - Philview
    
    I have young adult children who hate this stuff but there is only one way to pass a course and that is to go along with the ideology. It is like 1930s Germany here in terms of ideological tools used to control a population.
    
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    March 15, 2025 1:20pm
    - pb
      
      I have 2 in Uni whom detest it. They are teaching our kids to dislike the Maori culture.
      
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      March 15, 2025 3:29pm
- Jack5
  
  The Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, graduated from Auckland University with a BA honours degree in political science and Maori studies.
  
  That’s surely relevant to Maori indoctrination at her old university.
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:50am
  - Albie
    
    Wouldn’t it be heartening to have the coalition unanimously pass legislation to enable them to withhold taxpayer funding to universities if they go off the rails as in this instance?
    Your mention, Jack5, of Stanford studying Maori, and remember her leader used tax payer money to learn te reo? Unfortunately this means those wokesters are fully on board so there’s not a hope in hell Seymour or Winston will get legislative changes across the line.
    
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    March 15, 2025 5:39pm
    - Bridgenag
      
      Didn’t bureaucrats get &7,000 for learning Maori?
      
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      March 15, 2025 7:03pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, you have to wonder why “genius” Luxon appointed Stanford as Minister of Ed. He can’t possibly plead ignorance of her progressive leanings, so presumably he’s quite OK with the state of our universities.
    
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    March 15, 2025 6:55pm
- Kaiser Wilhelm
  
  I am very happy I attended university many years before this malarkey became a thing.
  
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  March 15, 2025 4:19pm
Rusty

A leftie asked me why is it wrong for Putin to annex Ukraine but it’s alright for Trump to annex Canada and Greenland?

I replied one is using an army and the other economics.
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March 15, 2025 9:31am
- Jack5
  
  How does the US “annex” Greenland by economics?
  By paying each of Greenland’s citizens to agree?
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:42am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  So it’s wrong for me to take your money by beating you up for it, but it’s ok for me to get it from you by extortion and blackmail?
  
  Certainly, I can try to get your money by offering you something you’re willing to pay for. But if you don’t want what I’m offering, it is your absolute right not to buy it.
  
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  March 15, 2025 12:39pm
  - rouppe
    
    Where is the extortion and blackmail wrt usa and Greenland?
    
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    March 15, 2025 2:31pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      We don’t yet know how Trump intends to take forward his claim to Greenland. But the Canadian precedent is not exactly encouraging.
      
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      March 15, 2025 2:58pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Trump is purchasing a Tesla.
Lefties are strange deranged creatures. They was EVs, but because they hate Musk and Trump they firebomb and paintbomb Teslas.
They would rather drag America through the mud that see it suceed.

https://politicalactionalerts.com/trump-buys-tesla-teams-up-with-musk-against-radical-left-protestors/?
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March 15, 2025 9:42am
- NothingLeft
  
  Elon’s days as CEO at Tesla are numbered. Right or wrong his political alignment is clearly doing huge damage to their brand and costing them a lot of sales.
  
  Cybertruck sales have collapsed – it’s a failed product, most EV tech is now commodified, Self Driving is still years from acceptability (improvement stalled out, needs massive computer upgrade to have any chance), and there are dozens of companies developing robots and AI meaning Tesla is unlikely to have a lead in that for future.
  
  If tesla are no longer a growth stock and lack any realistic uniquely help technology monopoly there is no way that their (still) 122:1 P:E is justified.
  
  Sell Sell Sell.
  
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  March 15, 2025 10:30am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  They want* EVs.
  
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  March 15, 2025 10:56am
- OlderChas
  
  Did he buy it? Or did his mate Musk just give him one off the spare stock shelf?
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:31am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Who knows? It is the media saying Trump “buys” a Tesla.
    Trump may have bought it for $1.
    
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    March 15, 2025 3:16pm
Tauhei Notts

Power Accounts
I had heard that electricity is cheaper in Australia than it is here. So I got my brother to scan me a copy of his power account from ARC Utilities Management Pty Ltd who handle Kawana Island, Queensland. I used a currency conversion rate of NZD1.0999=AUD1.00.
My invoice for 28 days = NZD290.08. At Australian rates = NZD173.77.
BUT, old people like my brother and me, get a rebate in Queensland. It would reduce the NZD173.77 to NZD142.36.
This is astounding.
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March 15, 2025 10:41am
- Terry Dalee
  
  “The Queensland Government is providing a cost of living rebate to your household, funded by coal
  royalties.”
  
  That’s what it says on my power bill in QLD.
  They’re giving us up to $1000 a year, for everyone, for power.
  
  So NZ, keep importing and burning that coal, preferably from Queensland. I want cheaper power…
  
  Public transport is only 50c too. Ferry, trains and buses. And they go where I want and when I want. Hence I use it. Has saved me getting a second car for the wife.
  
  Public transport serves me, unlike the model in NZ where you serve public transport.
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:11am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    The Cost of Living allowance was excluded from my calculations.
    
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    March 15, 2025 1:30pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Us old fellas get free public transport off peak in Auckland. Only used it once to get from the Shore to Auckland Hospital.
    
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    March 15, 2025 3:19pm
    - kiwimike
      
      Thank you Winston
      
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      March 15, 2025 3:55pm
    - Terry Dalee
      
      That’s because you old fellas are the only lot that have the time to use Auckland public transportation because it doesn’t go anywhere in any decent time that any one else wants to use it.
      
      Us working people don’t have the time to piss around with public transport that doesn’t work.
      
      Public transport should work for everyone….
      
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      March 15, 2025 6:29pm
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      Hey Terry, I’m from the Waikato. So when I am on business in Auckland I park at Papakura and get the rattler. After 9 a.m. it is the price I like paying. And on the way home I miss N.Z.’s longest car park, viz the Southern Motorway.
      Fifty five years ago I preferred Lion Red to DB Waitemata. I think the decision to change the name of Britomart to Waitemata was made in bad taste.
      
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      March 15, 2025 9:09pm
- Burtland
  
  1998 Electricity Reforms
  
  “The key objective of the reforms is to get strong downward pressure on costs and prices where the benefits flow to consumers, as well as achieving improved economic outcomes,” Mr Max Bradford said.
  
  they lied
  
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/electricity-reform-way-forward-0
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:15am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Yep.
  Selling off publicly owned power generation and supply has created extortion of the consumer/previous owners.
  Guess which party did it?
  Guess who want to run on asset sales next election?
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:35am
- Inandout
  
  TN, when we lived in Auckland we used to get a power bill every 3 months from AEPB. Power here is so expensive that 3 monthly would be crippling for some users. We all know nuclear is the answer but as cave dwellers hate the thought we just pay and pay.
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:37am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Cave dwellers. Think about that and nuclear. They really are cave dwellers!!
    
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    March 15, 2025 3:22pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      You do rabbit on about Nuclear Steve.
      
      Of course, given that electrical generation is the responsibility of the gentailers and they are listed companies and stuff. Why aren’t you griping at Meridian or Contact or Genesis about this? They would be the ones building these magic nukes. Since 1998 and Bradford, none of this is a gummint issue.
      
      Plus of course no insurance company would have anything to do with insuring a nuke – either the station or the downstream consequences of something going wrong.
      
      So by all means continue the rant – blame the Greens – ignore the gentailers and the insurance companies ….. 🙂
      
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      March 15, 2025 5:17pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        ” Why aren’t you griping at Meridian or Contact or Genesis about this?”
        Because they don’t have a blog with General Debate where you can criticise or make suggestions. 🙂
        
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        March 15, 2025 6:06pm
      - Ghost
        
        They have Facebook
        
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        March 15, 2025 6:07pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        If one wants to see nukes here then one might be pushing the idea that a gentailer should build one … not a gummint problem really.
        
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        March 15, 2025 6:27pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Exause they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They can only invest in geothermal wind or solar, it’s been made clear that anything else is unacceptable and will be a big problem when the left return to power. What commercial business would invest in coal or gas?
        
        Interestingly I see that Taranaki combined cycle gas plant has been generating flat out but the turbines are very close to end of life and won’t be refurbished according to Contact. Another 350 MW of baseload about to go.
        
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        March 15, 2025 9:17pm
- JackRabbit
  
  This is astounding.
  
  Considering the bulk of their electricity comes from burning fossil fuels.
  
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  March 15, 2025 11:49am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    But Jacinda made us use someone else’s fossil fuels. Huntly.
    
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    March 15, 2025 3:25pm
- Bridgenag
  
  lots of other taxes to offset that ……. ask about car regos
  
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  March 15, 2025 12:19pm
  - Terry Dalee
    
    Includes compulsory 3rd party insurance…
    
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    March 15, 2025 6:33pm
- Stu2
  
  I’m curious
  
  Got a breakdown of the ARC charge per KWH and for daily lines etc? Pre discount.
  
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  March 15, 2025 12:27pm
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    In Aussie dollars; per unit is 17 cents both controlled and uncontrolled. Daily fee is AUD0.29032.
    My daily fee is NZD2.50203. Aussie GST is 10%; our’s is 15%. The above figures are exclusive of GST.
    
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    March 15, 2025 1:35pm
    - Stu2
      
      17 c/kwh is 18.70 c/kwh in $NZ without GST
      That is cheap
      
      Daily is cheap too
      
      I’m on 22.49+GST c/kwh, daily $1.20+GST
      
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      March 15, 2025 2:45pm
- Jack5
  
  Re Tauhei N. on Queensland power prices …
  
  Two of Queensland’s biggest fuel sources for electricity generation are coal and coal-seam gas.
  
  New Zealand has large reserves of both, but the panic arses of global weather change oppose thermal generation of electricity, even if this is required to balance fluctuations on no-wind, no-sun days.
  
  NZ is talking of an import hub for liquefied petroleum gas. Some of this “LPG” will likely be from Queensland coal-seam gas. Tens of billions are being invested in Queenstland LPG export facilities (that is liquefied natural gas and liquefied coal-seam gas).
  
  After NZ Labour’s shameful affirmation of Ardern’s ban on petroleum and gas exploration, our natural-gas reserves will be untapped.
  
  Possibility of harnessing this country’s coal-seam gas (CNG) has been ignored by nearly everyone, even after it demonstrated its power in the Pike River disaster.
  
  A couple of decades or so ago, an international mining entrepreneur, supported virtually only by the national trucking firm based in Southland, failed to rouse sufficient investment interest for a CNG company on the Stock Exchange.
  
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  March 15, 2025 3:09pm
  - Jack5
    
    Edit: this country’s coal-seam gas ~~(CNG)~~ should be (CSG) …
    
    Sorry!
    
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    March 15, 2025 10:43pm
- Terry Dalee
  
  Oh, I’m not old. I’m working, early 40s with a family…
  
  Pensioners gets a bigger rebate…
  
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  March 15, 2025 6:30pm
Swifty

I’ve seen numerous tributes from people saying Efeso Collins was a great bloke.

I accept that as true, but boy was he wrong about many things.

One thing I used to have a go at him about on KB was his treated claim that crime is borne from poverty. Fix poverty and you’ll fix crime.

I say he was wrong about that, and I maintain that his motivation for saying that was that it nicely and neatly dovetails with and supports his political and economic philosophy that the major function of (a large) state of wealth redistribution.

I wonder how he’d reconcile his views with the explosion of drug and organised crime in the last twenty or thirty years and how many crims are just rolling in dough.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-shoebox-full-of-money-224000-proceeds-of-crime-confiscation-order-cites-convicted-murderer-and-145kmh-driver/7R4JKIVABFCITFQQBLISV5XZBM/

Are they driven to crime by poverty?

Anyway, I think he was a good bloke – but his worldview, like many lefties, while ‘nice’ sounding is seriously flawed and is leading us to ruin and in the long run, societal collapse.

https://www.facebook.com/share/18NPuaHCUD/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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March 15, 2025 10:43am
- rouppe
  
  Fix poverty and you’ll fix crime.
  
  The gangs make shit tons of cash from dealing drugs.
  
  Do they stop engaging in crime?
  
  So that argument is blown apart from the get go.
  
  [Mod – fixed]
  
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  March 15, 2025 2:35pm
- Eastlander
  
  Crime causes poverty, not the other way round.
  
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  March 15, 2025 3:16pm
Phronesis

From the ODT today.

“Ngāi Tahu is New Zealand’s largest iwi, with 84,969 members according to the latest census, although more than half of those are based overseas.”

I hadn’t realised it was so high. If you lose the motivated half of any population you are going to have trouble with the leftovers. Any stat that is “bad” for maori really needs to account for half the population having left.

The answer to why do maori do worse than other ethnic groups in NZ is probably that they don’t if you account for the fact that those that remain are mostly the lower quartiles of the population.
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March 15, 2025 10:58am
- Jack5
  
  White settlement of the east and southern coasts of the South Island began well before the Treaty of Waitangi.
  
  Whalers and sealers married southern Maori women, and later settlers and Maori intermarried.
  
  The number of descendants who identify as Ngai Tahu has grown sharply with the new wealth of the tribe.
  
  There is no minimum quota. Say that your Ngai Tahu ancestral connection is a harpooner’s wife who was your great-great-great grandmother. That one-sixteenth (6.25 per cent) hereditary connection qualifies you for the tribe.
  
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  March 15, 2025 3:04pm
- Mike
  
  When it is estimated that over 1 million New Zealanders live overseas, that figure for Ngai Tahu is put in context of the overall diaspora.
  
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  March 15, 2025 4:10pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    There are a lot of Maussies
    
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    March 15, 2025 5:28pm
NothingLeft

Portugal has dropped its plan to buy F-35s from the U.S. and will replace its F-16s with European fighters. Defense Minister Nuno Melo cited geopolitical uncertainty and the unpredictability of American policy.
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March 15, 2025 11:41am
Steve Otto N Shore

Dan Bongino has done his last show. Packing up his podcasts after 10 years.
He has been appointed by Trump as the Deputy FBI Director.
Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino to clean the FBI house out. Bongino has experience in the Secret Service. The FBI is in for one hell of a surprise.
Many in NZ will not have a clue who he is. I have followed him for many many years.

https://rumble.com/v6qmfxg-see-you-on-the-other-side-ep.-2442-03142025.html?
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March 15, 2025 11:53am
- sungsamning
  
  Yeah, that’s good news. Some in the MAGA movement think Pam Bondi is a Rino, and is slow walking the Epstein files release. Time will tell.
  
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  March 15, 2025 12:03pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    It is the corrupt FBI that is the big problem here.
    Time will tell sure. Most of the Epstein stuff is media projected, or just plain media lies.
    
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    March 15, 2025 3:08pm
Swifty

I wonder whether if and when New Zealanders will wake up to the fact that taxpayer money ostensibly put towards preserving the Maori language (most people would think a laudable objective) is actually funding a political movement, heavily sympathetic to and actively supporting and promoting Maori nationalism, Maori separatism and to privilege and promote a Maori-led ethnostate?

https://waateanews.com/2025/03/14/huhana-lyndon-green-party-list-mp-19/

https://waateanews.com/2025/03/14/the-future-of-maori-radio-requires-increased-investment-in-both-online-platforms-and-traditional-airwaves/

https://waateanews.com/2025/03/14/rawiri-waititi-co-leader-of-te-pati-maori-26/

https://waateanews.com/2025/03/10/takuta-ferris-te-rihainatanga-a-richard-prebble/

https://waateanews.com/2025/03/12/iwi-shareholders-condemn-whanau-ora-overhaul/

All from Waatea’s front page today.

Not a lot of balance there either across articles or within articles.

Ive been deep-diving into what Waatea post and what lines they take or promote for a good year or so now – and I can state with great confidence that their editorial staff take a Labour, Green or TPM line a minimum of 95% of the time.

I firmly believe the situation we’ve seen with Tamihere and Waipareira providing resources and funding to TPM is merely a symptom of a larger malaise – that taxpayer funding of Maori language revitalisation and other kaupapa is also being used to fund Maori political causes and political advocacy.
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March 15, 2025 12:07pm
- Don Beckett
  
  Yes, I can’t understand why the Govt. (taxpayer) has provided around $180 mil. over the past few years to promote the Maori language, when all that was needed was for those older Maori who head the families to teach the kids, as was proposed by Sir Apirana Ngata back in his day.
  Even in a local area here in Tauranga- Te Puna, which has 4 maraes in the area -the Maori language is spoken most of the time in homes. I know – a good friend of mine who lives there told me so & I have witnessed it.
  
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  March 15, 2025 1:20pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    The Maori language has to be taught in their correct way (indoctrination of all the made up words)
    
    4 3
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    March 15, 2025 4:20pm
- kiwimike
  
  You should send the info to Seymour and Winston.
  Luxon, Willis, Bishop & Stanford already know…..
  
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  March 15, 2025 4:00pm
Bridgenag

Went to the Civic in Auckland Maori sign twice the size and English underneath Tricky to find the WC
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March 15, 2025 12:22pm
Pineapple Lumps

NZ the country of mental gymnasts, the morally corrupt and politicians that push principles but don’t stand by them…
1. parliament unanimously voted in favour of a law on Thursday that would formally confer Taranaki, its companion peaks and surrounding environment the status of a legal person – to be named Te Kāhui Tupua.
2. NZ the country where New Zealand law does not set an upper time limit to have an abortion. So while a mountain is recognised as a legal person, the unborn child is not.
3. NZ the country that convicts a boy racer of manslaughter for killing a 32 week unborn child. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360601290/illegal-street-racer-admits-charges-relating-baby-death-after-hitting-pregnant-woman

So on one hand a piece of inanimate matter is given the status of a human and yet an actual human being has no status, but if it is desired by the mother then it has human status. It does seem like our legal code and morality are completely unhinged.

Also, given that Peters, Jones, Seymour have all been voted in to deal to maori separatism, why would they have felt the need to be part of the in crowd on this treaty settlement? Why at the least did they not abstain from voting? No point pushing for Treaty principles and then having none!
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March 15, 2025 12:22pm
Pineapple Lumps

So Mount Egmont is now legally a person called Te Kāhui Tupua.

While the NZBORA got a massive trampling through the Covid years, it still states that Te Kahui Tupua shall enjoy some of the following rights:

– the right to peaceful assembly (which includes the right to protest peacefully)
– the right to freedom of expression (the right to say what you want, within certain legal limits, without punishment from the State)
– the right to not be discriminated against
– the right to vote in general elections
– the right to justice.

Any ideas how a mountain asserts these rights?
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March 15, 2025 12:29pm
- Don Beckett
  
  It has many votes – all the Iwi in the surrounding area will claim the right to vote on “Mt. Egmont’s” behalf.
  
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  March 15, 2025 1:23pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Does Mt Egmont have the right to assert its gender?
  
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  March 15, 2025 5:30pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    According to Maori legend, Taranaki Maunga was a he. But that was then, back in legend times. Does Taranaki have the right to transition to a different gender? Would Taranaki be eligible for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care?
    
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    March 15, 2025 9:11pm
Ghost

South African ambassador to the US no longer welcome

https://x.com/SecRubio/status/1900655283380146267
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March 15, 2025 12:39pm
Sparrow

Have a question. Who sets the salaries of CEOs at government organisations? Reading Stuff, yes I know its verboden on this blog, an interesting article about Health and ACC. What astounded me was the salary of the ACC boss $683,000 apparently this is not the highest amongst public servants. How can these exorbitant and frankly immoral salaries be justified for people who seem to take no responsibility for stuff ups. The system is totally corrupt and on this blog people have a go at IWI and those at the bottom. Should start at the f. . top. Bloggers might wonder why the large unwashed get pissed off this is one of the many reasons.
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March 15, 2025 1:59pm
- Swifty
  
  Sparrow, please explain how those salaries are 1. exorbitant and 2. immoral.
  
  Note, I’m not saying they’re not, I just want to know your reasoning.
  
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  March 15, 2025 2:20pm
  - Cassandra
    
    At 600K these salaries are way under the private sector, as they should be. They are neither exorbitant nor immoral but the employees should be accountable and fireable.
    
    8 1
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    March 15, 2025 2:46pm
  - greybeard
    
    Would the ACC boss do as good a job for $350,000 as he/she does for twice that ?
    Of course they would.
    Still the same hours / week. Still the same number of meetings. Still the same amount of paid travel. Still the same interraction with staff. With the same outcomes.
    Just as they would NOT do twice as good a job if they were paid $1.2m.
    
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    March 15, 2025 3:15pm
    - Mike
      
      That might be assuming there is a close correlation between the salary paid and the work performed. Instead, salaries are determined more by the market rate commanded by individuals occupying specific positions.
      
      3 3
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      March 15, 2025 4:14pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Let’s test that out, shall we? Why not half the salary of the incoming ACC CEO (surely, the current one will soon fall on her/ his sword)? Let’s see what we get.
        
        3 0
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        March 15, 2025 5:32pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Convert it to an hourly rate – even if it is 60 hours a week.
    Then, what do we get for that rate per hour?
    
    4 1
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    March 15, 2025 4:27pm
  - Sparrow
    
    Sure will reply. A number of years ago I read an article in the Economist which was comparing the difference between the CEO and the average wage of the CEOs workforce. I can’t remember the exact figures but I am sure many years ago it could be as little as 7 times but had increased to 14 times. Has gone way past that now. Because they pay even more in private industry is no excuse its more immoral there again plus golden payouts even if they f
    ..up. Yes I am an old fart and retired years ago but as a CEO of several profitable off shore companies with strong boards we made sure executive pay and conditions did not get out of hand. How about this for a theory very good executives in my experience were not driven by money its the incompetents who are driven by greed.
    
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    March 15, 2025 6:35pm
NZer In Exile

You know how “renewables” shills keep telling us wind and solar are the cheapest form of energy production?

Yes, Coal and Natural Gas are Much Cheaper Than Wind and Solar:
https://climaterealism.com/2025/03/yes-coal-and-natural-gas-are-much-cheaper-than-wind-and-solar/
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March 15, 2025 7:21pm
- [email protected]
  
  I don’t know why solar costs US$0.40 per kWhr in Texas. Our 5.3 Kw solar system cost a total of NZ$13,500 installed. Six years later it has paid for itself in electric savings and is now making us a profit.
  
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  March 16, 2025 6:47am
AndyW

Drugged f#$ked violent woman on the West Coast (Herald)https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/shayna-lennane-henry-sentenced-for-violent-assault-car-chase-along-westports-main-street/IB7SJESGERAQBMPO2GSHWO2I6M/

Defence lawyer Marcus Zintl said Lennane-Henry had been on bail for more than two years and there had been no reoffending.

She had since given birth and stopped using methamphetamine, Zintl said.

Why are these ferals allowed to breed?
3 0
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March 15, 2025 10:01pm

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