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April 22, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 April 2025

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

This is one of the great environmental crimes in NZ’s history. A Pom with a bent for coarse fishing decided to breed and release tench and rudd into lakes and streams across the North Island. He had breeding tanks at home, and built tanks into his car for transportation purposes. Existing life in the waterways was destroyed.

They should dig him up, hang, draw and quarter him and stick his head on a spike as a warning to others.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/04/21/scientists-wage-war-on-invasive-fish-to-save-auckland-lake/
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April 22, 2025 8:07am
- Paulus
  
  Like Gorse to make a fence !
  
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  April 22, 2025 8:59am
  - john1234
    
    Rabbits as a supply of food and fur!
    
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    April 22, 2025 9:17am
    - Colville
      
      Hunting rabbits has been the training for thousands of kids myself included.
      So many frustrating hours stalking the little fury bastards with an air rifle as using a 22 was considered cheating by the old man 🙂
      But because of that I am a better shot standing up than 999/1000 people.
      
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      April 22, 2025 10:57am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Well done shooter!
        When I asked my Dad for a .22 to shoot rabbits.
        He bought me a .303 and enrolled me in the local Army Rifle Club, so I could learn to shoot safety and properly!
        Many happy years creating high tone deafness in my left ear (earmuffs were for pussys back then).
        Ended up winning my grade at Trentham Nationals in the 60s. (Part of RNZAF team)
        Never did go chasing bunnies.
        
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        April 22, 2025 3:13pm
    - Nobby2
      
      Also deer, stoats, weasels and opossums.
      
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      April 22, 2025 2:24pm
      - Colville
        
        Chamois, Thar , Wallabies.
        
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        April 22, 2025 4:05pm
      - Jethrod
        
        Scots, Irish and Welsh.
        
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        April 23, 2025 12:38pm
- Mike
  
  I think RNZ has a ‘Black Sheep’ episode about him.
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:21am
- Taieri
  
  Tench has been present in the North Otago Kakanui River since the 1960’s. It’s actually a great fighting fish and good to eat if one knows how to cook it. It is not any more predatory than trout and can happily coexist with the latter. What’s more, it does not feed on the native fish.
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:47am
  - Michael Sommerville
    
    They say that if you add enough curry, any fish can taste good.
    
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    April 22, 2025 3:20pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Now lets do trout! An appallingly destructive predator species.
  
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  April 22, 2025 1:07pm
  - Colville
    
    and pretty much always tastes like mud.*
    
    *Unless you shot it out of a stoney river, smoked it in the chimney and hadnt had real meat in a week. Apparently. So someone told me, but I forget who it was.
    
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    April 22, 2025 8:48pm
Anthony Melchett

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/journalist-wilhelmina-shrimpton-investigates-after-car-sideswiped-in-kingsland/

“Shrimpton was out for dinner with her fiance and friends in Kingsland on the night of April 19. After dining at the restaurant over a few hours, the pair found someone had sideswiped her SUV while it was parked on New North Road.

The person left a note with only a phone number attached, and after calling, Shrimpton was told they didn’t have insurance.

Shrimpton said they failed to give further information and stopped answering calls on the night, saying they’d text their details instead.

…

During a 20-minute phone call last night, the person told Shrimpton they would pay off the excess to her insurance claim.”

A word of caution here, this isn’t how it works. If you don’t have insurance and damage someone’s vehicle that does, you don’t just get to pay their excess. The insurance company will be after them to recover the whole amount.

She will have to give the third party details when she makes a claim and if she says she doesn’t know who it is (when she clearly does) could have her claim declined for deliberately misleading her insurance company.
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April 22, 2025 8:07am
- pdm
  
  Bang on AM.
  
  Shrimpton should put it in the hands of her Insurance Company immediately.
  
  They will be relentless.
  
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  April 22, 2025 8:46am
  - peterwn
    
    Trouble is she will have to pay the excess even though it was not her fault unless the insurance company can recover the full amount from the other party and even then the other party (or insurer) may pay short leaving the victim to have to claim for the excess at Disputes Tribunal (the referees are used to such cases). Insurance companies will often take bankrupcy proceedings against the other party if the amount owing puts it within bankrupcy laws.
    Miss Shrimpton is bemoaning that motorists are not obliged to carry third party damage insurance (as in UK etc) and that the law ought to be changed. Now as a journalist she should realise that issue has been around for many decades with victims and Electric Power Boards (with respect to vehicles knocking power poles over, this matter was a hardy annual at their annual Association conferences) but insurance companies do not want this since they would be morally obliged to insure those they regard as unacceptable risks. So over many decades neither National nor Labour have been inclined to introduce mandatory third party motor vehicle insurance.
    
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    April 22, 2025 9:09am
    - pdm
      
      Compulsory third party cover seemed to work in the UK when we lived there 2009/2011 although I must say I had no reason to delve into the pros and cons of it at that time.
      
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      April 22, 2025 9:27am
      - Don Beckett
        
        It is also compulsory in Australia – it is paid as a part of your vehicle registration.
        
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        April 22, 2025 10:29am
      - greybeard
        
        Don Beckett: I stand to be corrected but I think 3rd Party Property Damage it was also part of registration in NZ in the 1960s.
        
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        April 22, 2025 10:47am
      - edhunter
        
        3rd party in Australia only refers to personal injury caused by motor vehicle accidents, it does not cover damage to vehicles, unfortunately. I imagine plenty a kiwi has fallen into that trap
        
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        April 22, 2025 10:48am
      - Paulus
        
        We do not have it here principally because we have ACC a no faulit Physical Liability ability – so Material Damage is not worth the nationalisation into a another Department.
        The Insurance Council many years ago did a serious external review and concluded as no personal liability fault it was not worth it.
        They may have changed but does not appear so.
        
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        April 22, 2025 2:22pm
      - peterwn
        
        Greybeard – in pre ACC days third party injury insurance was mandatory and paid for as part of the rego fee. You selected the insurance company you wanted to use with State (then 100% Government owned) being the default (the premium was the same for all companies). ACC made this insurance redundant. Third party property damage was never mandatory.
        
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        April 22, 2025 9:03pm
    - Anthony Melchett
      
      Peterwn
      “Trouble is she will have to pay the excess even though it was not her fault”
      
      Sone insurers will now waive your excess upon supply of full third party details and their satisfaction that the tp was at fault.
      
      They will then get every single cent from said tp…
      
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      April 22, 2025 10:36am
      - pdm
        
        AM – a good insurer/broker will help her recover the excess as well.
        
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        April 22, 2025 11:21am
      - peterwn
        
        But in her case the other party was uninsured and is probably protected by extreme poverty – ie not worth suing. I
        
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        April 22, 2025 9:06pm
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      So the Insurance company will be highly motivated to find and catch the person responsible. Having their cell number makes it very easy to find them.
      
      report it to police, give the info to the insurance company. Walk away.
      
      Yes she might be out the excess, but not doing this makes her party to insurance fraud.
      
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      April 22, 2025 1:09pm
      - peterwn
        
        Unless the other party leaves a dud cell number. This happened to me in Australia and I had to pay a AUD1,000 excess to the company I rented the car from.
        
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        April 22, 2025 9:08pm
  - rouppe
    
    I’m not entirely sure that’s the case anymore. Just remember, the insurance company doesn’t care who pays the excess.
    
    I was skiing overseas two years ago. Someone came flying off an off piste bluff into a groomed train I was skiing and landed on top of me. Grade 2 tear to the shoulder. I got his name, and insurance details.
    
    X ray and consults at the village in Switzerland cost me about $500 NZ. $100 excess.
    
    My travel insurance company (Southern Cross) had no interest in pursuing the overseas party for the excess. It was left with me.
    
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    April 22, 2025 1:00pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  The other aspect of this that hit me was here was a journalist doing some real investigation to find the truth. Why doesn’t she apply that skill to her normal journalism?
  
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  April 22, 2025 8:59am
  - R
    
    Michael, this incident affected her, she had personal motivation not ideological motivation
    
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    April 22, 2025 10:05am
    - cmm
      
      Quite.
      Likely she would have been far more ideological had someone else been the victim.
      
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      April 22, 2025 7:51pm
- Inandout
  
  AM, this reporter is a bit thick by not immediately informing her insurer. The company will use professionals to track the offender and hound that third party until the substantial debt is paid.
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:01am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Or maybe not. Depends on what income and assets the uninsured driver has. Ignoring enquiries, failing to turn up to the Disputes Tribunal and then ignoring the order and any subsequent enforcement action is a pretty effective tactic. Especially if you are flatting, renting and are on some sort of benefit. It takes years before it finally goes to court. Then you settle for $10 a week and pay the first few of those…
    Been there, done that, several times. I’ll leave you to work out which side of the equation I was on 😉
    
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    April 22, 2025 10:50am
    - Inandout
      
      SS, yes some debts drag on for years and the amount owed diminishes with inflation but the end game is bankruptcy. Probably wont affect wasters because they use other people to get finance because their credit rating is crap. This is why insurers don’t want a bar of compulsory Third Party as the bottom end of society are terrible risks.
      
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      April 22, 2025 12:11pm
Bridgenag

The Persecution of Dr. Reiner Fuellmich:
The biggest judicial scandal ever seen in Germany

“Dr. Reiner Fuellmich is known and respected internationally for his work as a consumer defense lawyer and for winning major lawsuits against corporate giants such as Volkswagen, Kühne & Nagel, and Deutsche Bank. He was one of the first individuals to recognize that the COVID measures constituted crimes against humanity and decided, along with three other lawyers, to create the Corona Investigative Committee, which aimed to shed light on the actions of governments, public institutions, and the medical community in the context of the so-called “pandemic.”

Thanks to his brilliant investigative work, and after consulting more than 150 scientists and experts in all fields around the world, as well as numerous whistleblowers (from Pfizer, WHO, CDC, UN), he was able to collect an abundance of evidence of what he calls “the biggest crime ever perpetrated against humanity.””

https://www.malone.news/p/the-persecution-of-dr-reiner-fuellmich-a9d?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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April 22, 2025 8:29am
- Colville
  
  “the biggest crime ever perpetrated against humanity.”
  
  That is a fairly high bar for the Germans!
  
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  April 22, 2025 8:44am
  - Mike
    
    Puts Stalin and Mao in their place!
    
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    April 22, 2025 9:28am
Chuck Bird

The title explains everything.

How the IPCC Buried the Medieval Warm Period. And why it keeps proving today’s warming isn’t unique or unnatural, Dr. Matthew Wielicki

https://irrationalfear.substack.com/p/how-the-ipcc-buried-the-medieval?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1072769&post_id=147885143&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1p69qr&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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April 22, 2025 8:40am
- Scott
  
  Chuck, I agree with your post. I’ve seen the letters of pastors in Greenland lamenting the weather is getting colder and the people are leaving and the animals are dying. Greenland once was green and people farmed there. This was during the mediaeval warm period.
  
  Maybe there are natural cycles of warming and cooling? Maybe those cycles are independent of human activity?
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:37am
  - Flossie
    
    I think you’re on to something there Scott!
    
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    April 22, 2025 10:38am
  - ISeeRed
    
    Well, the edges of southern Greenland were probably ice-free and allowed for subsistence farming. I doubt lush tropical rainforests were growing there. I imagine “Greenland” was one of the earliest examples of false advertising.
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:36am
  - kiwimike
    
    worth a read Scott
    “Global warming every 1500 yrs”
    great book
    dennis t avery and fred singer
    
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    April 22, 2025 1:06pm
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Of course there are cycles of warming and cooling independent of human activity.
    
    It is also quite obvious that there is some human activity that has added to climate behaviour over the last few decades.
    
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    April 22, 2025 1:09pm
    - Cassandra
      
      Perhaps a little but immaterial in the greater shape of things. But I gave you a green tick! I’d like to see Earth looked after better.
      
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      April 22, 2025 2:50pm
  - Paulus
    
    The Sahara desert was one green and lush, and in the Eastern parts still is – Ethiopia I think.
    
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    April 22, 2025 2:24pm
  - peterwn
    
    That is why there were ice ages. I understand that the Earth is just starting to enter another ice age.
    
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    April 22, 2025 9:14pm
- Handyman
  
  I like observing how meanings of words change, sometimes to the opposite.
  1. The Beatles would be surprised that “give peace a chance” has been changed to “give war a chance” after President Trump started negotiating a peace deal in Ukraine.
  
  2. I am starting to see the term “Climate Science Denier” now refers to people who do not recognize the scientific evidence that the climate changes gradually over time and there is no crisis, and certainly not solely caused by humans.
  Alarmists can still use the term “Climate Denier” which identifies the writer as a someone passionate about a cluster of “issues”. The list of issues, none of which are ever solved, morphs over time.
  
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  April 22, 2025 11:45am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Luxon is one of those alarmists. Note: Maureen Pugh.
    
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    April 22, 2025 1:16pm
Yvette

The Treaty principles bill is gone; now Govt’s real Treaty agenda picks up pace
The Government is queuing up a series of policies that seek to change the place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in modern-day Aotearoa. First up: a wholesale review of Treaty of Waitangi provision clauses in existing laws.

[Luxon] said the Government didn’t believe in “generic, open ended, general Treaty clauses and legislation”.
“We want to see Treaty clauses. We want respect for the Treaty. We want to make sure that it’s in legislation, but it’s got to be appropriate, and it’s got to be linked to the purpose of the legislation, because otherwise, all we’re getting is huge amounts of poor clarity and lots of uncertainty.”
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/04/11/governments-treaty-policy-push-is-not-over/

Govt to change or remove Treaty of Waitangi provisions in 28 laws
“… it’s got to be appropriate, and it’s got to be linked to the purpose of the legislation”
Does not “to be appropriate” and “linked to the purpose of the legislation” mean to consider that a definition of the Principle involved will have to be defined”, which was surely what the ACT Treaty Principles Bill attempted to do.

Has Parliament just voted down the bill which would have enabled this stage of the Government’s consideration of the Treaty and how it engages with modern democratic life?
Someone please explain how this wondering is screwed up and wrong or illogical.
There are likely a lot of people out there wondering the same.

Even, as the late Maori King asked that the Treaty be enshrined in legislation so politicians “couldn’t mess with it.” I assume a man of his unchallenged standing, would not be mistaken on that. So where or what is the final definitive version in English of an accurate and accepted translation of the Maori version of the Treaty, translated into Maori by English appointees in a one night stand on behalf of the English Crown 1840.

Surely that is the concrete foundation needed for any discussion or application of New Zealand’s Founding Document – what David Seymour was trying to do, and logically still needs to be done

Doesn’t “Govt’s real Treaty agenda” need a really defined Treaty?
See? – that is simple
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April 22, 2025 8:42am
- pdm
  
  `Does not “to be appropriate” and “linked to the purpose of the legislation” mean to consider that a definition of the Principle involved will have to be defined”, which was surely what the ACT Treaty Principles Bill attempted to do.’
  
  This could be all over and done with apart from the required referendum had we had a more enlightened Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and their respective parties.
  
  Talk about dragging things out doing exactly the same as the `too Simplistic’ Treaty Principles Bill.
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:07am
  - wsk12345
    
    Not if we get rid of “principles” and say what we mean in the legislation.
    
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    April 22, 2025 10:18am
    - pdm
      
      wsk do you have that much confidence in PM Luxon?
      
      I doubt it will happen.
      
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      April 22, 2025 11:24am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Oh FFS, it’s part of the coalition agreement, why would he not?
        
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        April 22, 2025 2:18pm
  - Interested Party
    
    This has always been national and NZ First plan, and it’s been public. I’ve always thought the best approach is to untangle principles from all the various laws since the 1980s. The problem with ACT principles law is that 1) It gives the term principles validity, and 2) The next labour coalition could simple repeal it, now they will have to amend a whole lot of laws to bring it back in
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:35am
    - Paulus
      
      You are assuming tha the next Coaltion Government will be the same as now !
      
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      April 22, 2025 2:26pm
- Quail
  
  Yvette,
  If the Government has a secret treaty agenda it is much more than time it is exposed to NZ
  Open transparent government is essential and that which most of us voted for..
  It is not about a self identified elite telling NZ what is good for us.
  
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  April 22, 2025 10:02am
  - Yvette
    
    Quail, I do not think this next Government legislation relating to the Treaty is “a secret treaty agenda” – it was well signalled before the Election and is understood to be accepted by all three Parties in the National Coalition.
    
    It may go some way to achieving what ACT’s bill didn’t – and hikoi-ing may now be a done thing – like, over done.
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:00am
- Scott
  
  Yvette – don’t agree with you and here’s why. Prior to the election National and NZ First made an agreement that they would take references to the Treaty of Waitangi out of the legislation unless they are directly relevant. Winston Peters is on the record as saying that there are no principles in the Treaty of Waitangi, that it was simply an agreement between two peoples.
  
  That’s not wrong. It’s a different approach to the Act party but it’s not wrong. Maybe it will be more important in the long run? I recently saw a pro treaty Victoria university person who thought it would be more damaging to their cause. Time will tell.
  
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  April 22, 2025 10:32am
  - Yvette
    
    Scott, regarding “Winston Peters is on the record as saying that there are no principles in the Treaty of Waitangi, that it was simply an agreement between two peoples” that coincides with the view of the late Maori King, who said “The Treaty is written. There are no Principles” but that means all references to Principles in current legislation would go, because there are no Principles.
    
    The comment so far however indicates a test where if the Principles are directly relevant they stay, and that is where I wonder how can relevancy apply to something not defined. Can that be explained?
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:13am
    - Scott
      
      Yvette – I’m not a lawyer so a legal person may be able to explain it better. But I understand that the coalition agreement between National and NZ First also said that they would honour existing commitments to Maori that previous government’s had made.
      
      An example would be the recent agreement between the crown and local iwi about Egmont national Park and Mount Egmont. Now I personally hate that particular agreement and I’ll carry on calling it Mount Egmont till my dying day.
      
      However they’re going to honour pre existing agreements. They have begun taking references to the Treaty out of legislation. That’s good.
      
      There are no principles in the Treaty. That’s good. The judges can’t refer to principles of the treaty if no reference to the treaty is in the legislation. So that sounds good too.
      
      We’ll just have to see how it plays out. But I like Winston’s approach, and Shane Jones, and I wish them well.
      
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      April 22, 2025 11:28am
      - Yvette
        
        Scott – I’m not a lawyer either
        
        Coalition Agreement between the National Party and the New Zealand First Party.
        
        The Coalition Government will reverse measures taken in recent years which have eroded the principle of equal citizenship, specifically we will:
        • Confirm that the Coalition Government does not recognise the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as having any binding legal effect on New Zealand.
        [ … ]
        • Conduct a comprehensive review of all legislation (except when it is related to, or substantive to, existing full and final Treaty settlements) that includes ‘The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” and replace all such references with specific words relating to the relevance and application of the Treaty, or repeal the references.
        
        So, in “and replace all such references with specific words relating to the relevance and application of the Treaty” it is in defining what may be “with specific words” that I find the gap.
        
        For example, currently there are “the “3 Ps” of the Treaty of Waitangi are Partnership, Protection, and Participation. These principles are used to interpret the Treaty and guide the relationship between the Crown and Māori. They highlight the need for mutual respect, cooperation, and shared responsibility in fulfilling the Treaty’s promises”
        
        Article the Second
        Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and to the respective families and individuals thereof the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession;
        https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/en/about/the-treaty/maori-and-english-versions
        
        “… and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess” presumably includes the Maori language, as it isn’t mentioned elsewhere that I am aware of, “the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and to the respective families and individuals thereof the full exclusive and undisturbed possession”, not Partnership, Protection, and Participation of the language.
        That I assume will suit you Scott, and Winston, but what about Luxon?
        
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        April 22, 2025 12:30pm
    - Paulus
      
      No Money in changing what we now have !
      
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      April 22, 2025 2:27pm
  - kowtow
    
    ‘Treaty of Waitangi, that it was simply an agreement between two peoples.’
    
    No it was an agreement at the time between the Crown and certain Maori chiefs , who were at that time the perceived rulers of their own limited territories.
    
    It certainly wasn’t an agreement between two peoples.
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:16am
    - Scott
      
      Kowtow –
      “The Treaty of Waitangi was signed by a total of 43 chiefs on the 6th of February 1840 at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. Several copies were then made in Te Reo Māori which were sent around the country to be signed. By the end of 1840 around 500 chiefs had signed”
      
      https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/the-signing-of-the-treaty/
      
      A minority of chiefs did not sign but the matter of sovereignty was decided as a result of the land wars in the 1860s and 1870s. Certainly for the whole of the 20th century Parliament has been sovereign.
      
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      April 22, 2025 2:14pm
  - pdm
    
    If it is good legislation then it is very likely ACT will support it.
    
    If it is a token gesture then I am not so sure that they will.
    
    Peters will want to go hard but, will Luxon?
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:26am
    - Colville
      
      I would really hope that its good enough that ACT can support it at as olive branch to NZF with a view to the future as Peters isnt going to be there forever and I would hope that Jones Seymour can get along!
      
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      April 22, 2025 11:53am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Act signed up to all the coalition policies, what do you mean good eno8ugh to support? He does support it
        
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        April 22, 2025 2:25pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      This is signed off by all three coalition parties, there better not be any non-support by ACT, because Seymour has signed up to the deal, if he votes it down then the government is over, Labour and greens and TPM will romp in
      
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      April 22, 2025 2:24pm
      - Colville
        
        G.
        
        You are saying its already documented that ACT would support NZFs bill which was at odds with ACTs own bill?
        
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        April 22, 2025 4:10pm
      - Ghost
        
        It’s not a bill, it was part of the Coalition agreements, so yes act signed agreement to it. Work started last year on removing it from the laws, they plan to have the work finished by next election
        
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        April 22, 2025 4:17pm
    - Quail
      
      PDM,
      As I mentioned earlier to Yvette ,there is absolutely no certainty as to the substance of the Luxon / National proposals.
      There is no certainty that all races in NZ will be treated equally with National’s proposals , and even a former National minister is “ hell bent “ on obtaining control of fresh water for Ngai Tahu in the South Island.
      Luxon spiking the ACT bill and another ministe showing glee don’t give any confidence that the planned / possible fiddling around the edges will ensure equality for all citizens under NZ law.
      Trust <40 % in NZ politicians is now at an all time low.
      
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      April 22, 2025 5:52pm
- kiwimike
  
  National and Luxon support the racist, undemocratic Maori co-governance
  
  8 4
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  April 22, 2025 1:10pm
- rouppe
  
  So where or what is the final definitive version in English of an accurate and accepted translation of the Maori version of the Treaty, translated into Maori by English appointees in a one night stand on behalf of the English Crown 1840.
  
  What?
  
  To translate from English to Maori in 1840 and then translate from Maori to English in 2025 is classic “Chinese whispers”. Have you ever played that game? Person 1 whispers a sentence to person 2, who repeats it to person 3 then 4 then 5 who tells person 1 what they’ve heard. 99% of the time it is nothing like what person 1 said.
  
  The Maori version was translated from the English draft. Therefore the English draft is the definitive version.
  
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  April 22, 2025 1:10pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Another example of immigrants from non traditional sources dragging NZ’s good name through the mud.

“Children adopted overseas, have been raped, beaten and held captive in New Zealand in cases where their adoptive parents had previous criminal histories, according to court documents and child welfare agencies”

“Thousands of inter-country adoptions occur every year in New Zealand, mainly from the Pacific Islands and south-east Asia”

Enjoying that diversity dividend yet?

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/558730/saving-sione-children-being-adopted-overseas-trafficked-to-work-in-new-zealand
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April 22, 2025 8:57am
- kowtow
  
  Tut tut , we’re commanded to celebrate other “cultures”.
  
  9 2
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  April 22, 2025 11:17am
  - ISeeRed
    
    I was overwhelmed with gratitude, respect and admiration for diversity when I saw a woman in full black niqab obediently following two steps behind her bearded husband when I walked around Hamilton Lake the other day. We need more citizens of the world like this in Aotearoa!
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:42am
oldpark

Just wondering .Does anyone have experience of how pig ignorant the power company called Genesis has become to their captive audience case in point .
Try ringing them and see how long you hang on phone waiting for a paid employee to answer .
Just make sure while you wait bring some food and plenty to drink . All of that if your time is not an issue .Nuff Said.
11 2
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April 22, 2025 9:02am
- Ghost
  
  Don’t wait, fill out their online form then they will contact you
  
  https://www.genesisenergy.co.nz/help#form
  
  8 2
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  April 22, 2025 9:06am
- pdm
  
  Contact is the same oldpark.
  
  For the first 15 years or so we were with Contact someone answered phone calls within 20/30 seconds. Now one hangs on for the duration.
  
  11 1
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  April 22, 2025 9:09am
  - john1234
    
    Always look for the “online chat with a real person option” if there is one. You don’t have to wait and can do other stuff when it pings their responses.
    
    9 0
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    April 22, 2025 9:26am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I recommend pressing 1 for New Sales; I find that line gets picked up pretty quickly. Once I explain that I actually want Customer Service, they transfer me through.
    
    8 0
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    April 22, 2025 1:24pm
- R
  
  Not only Genesis has this problem. The majority of significant businesses do; some of the problem is management policy, but a lot is to do with staff ability. For many their employment is just a job between social activities.
  
  12 0
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  April 22, 2025 10:13am
  - septic skeptic
    
    How much of this is down to working from home I wonder.
    
    13 1
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    April 22, 2025 11:00am
  - Flossie
    
    And they don’t like it when you go off “Script”! They resort to parroting the lines off the page in front of them until you demand to speak to their superior.
    
    8 0
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    April 22, 2025 2:22pm
- PurplePen
  
  Unfortunately, dealing with corporates and government agencies is one of the 21st century evils. I dislike any interaction and avoid all contact unless absolutely necessary, banks, insurance are the worst.
  
  It’s all the introductory spiel and false are you having a good day and multitude of options , you’re X in the queue, a multitude of disclosures etc then only to be put in touch with someone that has a preconceived notion of their solution to your problem having not listened or not read what you’ve just explained. Just a hideous experience every time. Chat or phone. And then they still bother you with the post interaction survey. F…. off.
  
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  April 22, 2025 11:07am
  - Conservatarian
    
    100% right, the customer service function is a modern evil. Typical of the approach of Genesis and other corporates.
    
    Don’t think, however, that Genesis is run by idiots. For example, it has recognised that natural gas in NZ is no longer a reliable “transitional” fuel for its sector and expects to rely in the future on coal and potentially wood waste.
    
    https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/manawatu-standard/20250417/281595246374590
    
    Sounds like Genesis will soon be paying out an Ardernian Dividend.
    
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    April 22, 2025 1:13pm
- kowtow
  
  I’ve found a post on their facebook page( if they have one) helps enormously .
  
  They’re shit scared of real and public feedback that they can’t “manage”.
  
  They ( big corps) pretend the customer matters , but what really matters to them is protecting their very expensively paid for “image”.
  
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  April 22, 2025 12:38pm
- Dougal10
  
  I have someone called bluecurrent trying to call me lately . If I answer a computer voice says please hold for bluecurrent , as if I’m going to hold for some dumb ass computer thats calling me . I have no idea what they want and am unlikely to find out unless a real person with a listed cell phone number actually gets around to calling. Power companies are the pits.
  
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  April 22, 2025 5:59pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

From Radio NZ, teaching bodies fear that the requirement for primary teacher candidates to pass the new basic literacy and numeracy tests will result in fewer candidates.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
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April 22, 2025 9:08am
- BeaB
  
  Cry. Remember the days when primary school teachers understood English language, maths and science and how to teach them. When even high school English teachers nowadays need to be taught about phonemes etc so they can cope with structured literacy it is a wonder any of our kids leave school literate.
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:35am
- [email protected]
  
  If you are able, get your kids into a Catholic school. Our two grandkids are doing very well there.
  
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  April 22, 2025 11:41am
- than
  
  If basic literacy/numeracy filters out candidates, then good! Would anyone want their child’s teacher to not meet simple requirements?
  
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  April 22, 2025 2:52pm
kris

“Departing Health New Zealand boss Margie Apa “will receive the remaining salary payments” under her fixed-term agreement, until June.”

Surely if you “resign” (as the article states) before the end of a fixed term contract, you should not be entitled to your taxpayer funded salary for the remainder of the term (5 months @ 895k per annum)?!
Nevermind receiving money for a governance course, when you are no longer governing anything…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/health-nz-paid-for-departing-chief-executive-margie-apa-to-do-governance-course-as-she-was-leaving/GPM4ZM5IEJDYTLJE3NQBXKGP44/
25 2
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April 22, 2025 9:25am
- MCōs
  
  I’m not exactly sure how these things work, but I’m guessing it was part of some sort of resignation package.
  
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  April 22, 2025 9:49am
  - R
    
    Resignation pack? WHY! didn’t she choose to resign! Doesn’t seem like she was dismissed.
    
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    April 22, 2025 10:16am
    - wsk12345
      
      Whether she resigned or not it sounds like the gov wanted her to leave more than she wanted to. I’m not happy paying her $400k for nothing but it’s better than $800k pa for taking us backward.
      
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      April 22, 2025 11:45am
    - Colville
      
      R.
      
      An employment contract (like any contract) should be read by both parties with a view to everything going tits up and every possible cost being applied.
      
      Anyone hiring on the basis of it all being rosy and smelling of unicorn farts is a fool.
      
      They wanted her out….and she had a solid contract. End of the matter. Pay the bill.
      
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      April 22, 2025 11:57am
      - Paulus
        
        The last Government gave huge contracts to many top executives with huge payout clauses.
        
        7 1
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        April 22, 2025 2:37pm
    - MCōs
      
      Maybe in these situations it’s less messy to give an individual an incentive to resign rather than terminate their contract, which could prove very costly
      
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      April 22, 2025 1:03pm
    - rouppe
      
      No, she offered to resign, if…
      
      If she is paid out the contract.
      If there is no negative commentary.
      If 3/4/5…
      
      4 1
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      April 22, 2025 1:15pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Its all a way of getting someone to leave early.
      ie You resign now and we will
      pay out your contract
      Pay your course fees
      Give you a big sloppy kiss.
      Everyone feels happy.
      
      or
      we terminate you
      You get pay as per contract
      No sloppy kiss
      you and we suffer all sorts of Media attention
      (But we have teams of PR people to handle the onslaught.
      You are on your own.
      You may spend $$$$ on a lawyer about wrongful dismissal
      We have VERY deep pockets for lawyers
      
      Have in decades past been involved in these type of negotiations.
      Both as the pushee and the pusher
      
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      April 22, 2025 4:07pm
- jacthecat
  
  A pity she did not take the Governance course before she started the job, instead of after.
  
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  April 22, 2025 12:39pm
  - Paulus
    
    She did, how Labour allowed her to rort the system in the event of getting the DCM from the new Government
    – along with many others who are salivating as how much they can get by resigning.
    
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    April 22, 2025 2:40pm
Flossie

Something I noticed in a very recent overseas trip, involving multiple airports, is that it would seem that Auckland Airport is unique in not charging to use luggage trollies.
Much appreciated, and long may the situation remain unchanged.
14 1
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April 22, 2025 9:58am
- Local Miller
  
  I don’t know where you went, but these were free to use in Dubai and Cape Town when we traveled there last year.
  
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  April 22, 2025 10:58am
  - Flossie
    
    USA and Australia. Not exactly a huge sample of countries I know.
    
    8 0
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    April 22, 2025 11:03am
- Colville
  
  ….and at some airports overseas a nice man with come with a luggage trolly to help you and you will never see your luggage ever again!
  
  13 0
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  April 22, 2025 11:03am
  - pdm
    
    Colville – we got conned out of 10 euro twenty years ago at Rome railway station. Always had our luggage under control though – just suckered out of the dosh.
    
    Twice actually – I paid 5euro for a pee and then walked out to see a Macdonalds about a chain away. Still when you’ve got to go you have got to go.
    
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    April 22, 2025 11:31am
    - Colville
      
      Happened to me in Santiago.
      
      We carry a stretchy bike lock now …harder to carry off 3 bags tied together!!
      
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      April 22, 2025 12:03pm
      - kiwimike
        
        Collville
        we do too.
        we train all over Europe and it works a treat keeping the bags together and attached to the stand.
        
        5 0
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        April 22, 2025 1:19pm
  - MCōs
    
    A friend of mine was standing in an airport or a bus station with three bags.
    Someone helped themselves to the one he couldn’t hold on to.
    
    4 1
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    April 22, 2025 1:13pm
- H. Upmann
  
  Shoosh! Don’t give them ideas Flossie.
  
  6 0
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  April 22, 2025 11:22am
- Ra Henare
  
  I note Auckland Airport is sadly Woke as hell.
  Maori Names on Signs. Some signs ONLY Maori!!!???
  What???? so 99% of travellers have to guess what its about?
  
  International standards use English and signs.
  Even Chinese Airports use English & signs (and Chinese for its millions of travellers)
  Maybe local language in smaller letters.
  
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  April 22, 2025 4:11pm
Ghost

My god, this whole article just seems completely out of touch with reality

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/04/22/dame-jacinda-ardern-to-give-yale-graduation-ceremony-address/
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April 22, 2025 11:08am
- Handyman
  
  It perpetuates the narrative that New Zealand had one of the lowest death rates for covid. Actually, it was 138th best of 230 countries monitored. (Worldometer)
  
  For perspective, she performed:
  17th best out of 18 Oceania countries.
  52nd best out of 58 African countries.
  40th best out of 50 Asian countries.
  
  …but was 4th best out of 48 European countries. She attributes this to her decisive, strong, caring and inclusive governance style. I would suggest that New Zealand not being in Europe was more of a factor.
  
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  April 22, 2025 1:32pm
sungsamning

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/04/21/does-trump-have-a-doomsday-device-for-harvard-academia-n3801983
Does Trump Have a Secret Weapon Ready For Harvard, Academia?
Secret weapon? Thus far, the Trump administration has deployed plenty of public weapons in the fight to end anti-Semitism and illegal discrimination in Academia, and especially in the Poison Ivies. The most obvious weapon has been money, and that was enough to get Columbia’s attention, if not its full cooperation. [Drop the hammer on them, Mr President.]
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April 22, 2025 11:11am
- kiwimike
  
  take their accreditation and tax free statuses.
  
  7 5
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  April 22, 2025 1:20pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, and tax their endowments, remove their tax exempt status if applicable. And remove them from student loan scheme eligibility.
    
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    April 22, 2025 3:16pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  ‘Does Trump Have a Secret Weapon Ready For Harvard, Academia?’
  
  No, Harvard predates the USA by just under 150 years and has billions in their trusts.
  
  A couple more years of Trump, while annoying for them, is not really that relevant.
  
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  April 22, 2025 1:56pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Endowments can be taxed. Student loan eligibility can be denied. The feds can decline to hire any Harvard grads.
    
    4 3
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    April 22, 2025 3:17pm
  - Colville
    
    I knew a couple who were Profs with tenure at Harvard. Good bastards, we stayed with them maybe 10 years ago. They drove us to campus for a tour, driving for about 20 minutes through Harvard owned streets and high rises and apartments before we got to campus. At a guess I would say there were many 100’s of hectares of inner city realestate owned by Harvard. The wealth is just beyond comprehension.
    Their house which was nice but shabby was $3.5mil , they got a interest free loan (for life!!) as part of the employment package to move up from Texas as houses down there are so cheap they would never be able to accept the job otherwise.
    
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    April 22, 2025 4:22pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ8rD4f5yf4
Furious! China’s Tofu-Dreg Projects Spark Anti-China Wave in Thailand.
A growing wave of frustration against Chinese investments is sweeping through Thailand. Recently, a major disaster has fueled public outrage, with many now questioning the role of Chinese companies in the country.
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April 22, 2025 11:12am
Maggy Wassilieff

Brian Easton provides a very interesting read:

Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today.

https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/viennese-refugees-who-changed-the-way-we-think
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April 22, 2025 11:24am
- kiwi_chileno
  
  Good list. Isn’t it telling that they lived under totalitarianism? – they value and defend freedom more than most in the Anglosphere because they were deprived of it. You know that George Soros was one of Popper’s students? Soros’ Open Society Foundations is a tribute to Popper and aims to advance Popper’s ideas about an Open Society https://www.eurocanadians.ca/2021/01/george-soros-karl-popper-open-society-and-its-enemies
  
  I can add some writers to Easton’s list – José Ortega y Gasset, Raymond Aron, and Jean-François Revel, all under-appreciated in the Anglosphere. These are liberal philosophers who helped Mario Vargas Llosa (QEPD, died last week – Peruvian, Nobel Prize winner in Literature, a politician) convert from Marxism to being a a passionate defender of defender of liberalism and the free market – others are Adam Smith, Hayek, Popper, and Isaiah Berlin. He writes about his intellectual journey in ‘The Call of the Tribe’ (English edition 2023) https://www.independent.org/tir/2024-summer/the-call-of-the-tribe/ The left has never forgiven Vargas Llosa for repudiating Marxism, his alleged conversion to ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ and ‘populism’, and for putting modernisation above equality.
  
  https://archive.is/20250414120549/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/04/14/mario-vargas-llosa-nobel-laureate-peru-novelist-president/
  
  Vargas Llosa so admired Thatcher that when she resigned, he sent flowers with a note, “Madam: there are not enough words in the dictionary to thank you for what you have done for the cause of liberty.” He praised Chile as a model of freedom and prosperity for Latin America. In 2021, he endorsed José Antonio Kast (‘far right’) for President, saying it was essential that Kast win to prevent the destruction of the freedoms that had modernised Chile. Kast lost to Gabriel Boric in the second round of voting (Boric is a hipster socialist; Chile’s Ardern-Trudeau; sees himself as Salvador Allende’s heir). In 2023, Vargas Llosa supported Javier Milei for President. Vargas Llosa began to despair of the Hispanosphere’s proclivity to vote left: “What matters in elections is not whether the elections are free, but to choose right.”
  
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  April 22, 2025 7:35pm
kiwikidsnz

“Could I please urgently request a meeting with you Barbara to:

Discuss your expectations of how I should run my business in line with government expectations.
Seek your assurance that you don’t have intentions to structurally change my co-operative and take my private enterprise and my hard work away from me.
Answer any questions you may have about Foodstuffs or my observations about the supermarket industry over the last 25 years.
Consider and discuss how we may work together to explore how customers can see value in food pricing in a long, thin island of 5 million people.
Thank you for taking the time to listen, I look forward to some reassurance and a constructive conversation.”

https://www.fmcgbusiness.co.nz/letter-to-christopher-luxon-and-barbara-kuriger/
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April 22, 2025 12:25pm
- Sponge
  
  The whole letter is well worth a read.
  
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  April 22, 2025 12:52pm
goNZ1

A recent Maori Land Court decision in favour of the ‘Specials’ ….nor did they want to have the parent block reduced any further, even though they accept that the non-Māori applicant owns just under half of the shares in the block. In legal terms, owners of land as tenants in common, own every inch of the land relative to their shareholding.
But in tikanga terms, Judge Warren noted, “Māori have a relationship with every inch of the land, relative to their tikanga responsibilities being exercised.
“It is this tikanga lens that wins the day here and it will be this tikanga based relationship that will be impacted if I granted the partition.”
He declined the application.
OMG now we have the ”tikanga lens” !! Its Goodnight New Zealand Mr Luxon with these anti-growth lunatics in charge of the asylum.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360653451/tikanga-lens-wins-day-here-farmers-bid-split-maori-land-blocked
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April 22, 2025 1:08pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Where can I buy a tikanga lens? I’ve got a fisheye lens, but maybe I need a tikanga lens too.
  
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  April 22, 2025 3:18pm
- Colville
  
  goNZ
  
  Certainly the correct decision by the judge, a minority shareholder cant just withdraw and force their views on the majority.
  
  That said, its a sad tale the Māori owners cant get their shit together enough to even sign a freaking lease to keep the land earning.
  
  …and it sounds like the farmer has bent over backwards…and its a matter of FU Whitey! any idea of yours is bad.
  
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  April 22, 2025 4:26pm
Keith White

Enough debates. Just go out and get one already. It protects you, your family, and everybody in your community. It’s been scientifically, mathematically and statistically repeatedly proven to make everyone safer. The communities that got them overwhelmingly safer. The chances of side effects or accidents are so unbelievably small that is completely absurd not to get one already. Quit being selfish, quit arguing online, stop being a rabid hoplophobe, and go purchase a firearm as soon as you have your license.
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April 22, 2025 1:17pm
- [email protected]
  
  If I remember correctly, you are not allowed to shoot anyone burgling your house in New Zealand. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
  
  That question was on the firearms test.
  
  Many years ago my wife organized a neighborhood watch meeting in California and had a police officer talk to us. He said if you shoot someone outside your house be sure to drag them inside before calling the police.
  
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  April 22, 2025 5:57pm
MCōs

Certain amount of irony in this story
https://www.alternet.org/kristi-noem-dc/
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April 22, 2025 1:23pm
- Ghost
  
  Suspect is an unknown white male wearing a medical mask. I have seen a lot of photos of this unknown white male wearing a medical mask.
  
  4 0
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  April 22, 2025 2:14pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    And he’s double masked – I’m surprised he caught dementia.
    
    4 2
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    April 22, 2025 3:20pm
Inandout

This New Mexico Judge was literally in bed with an illegal. Unbelievable what has happened to the Dem Party.
https://resistthemainstream.com/judge-resigns-after-shocking-discovery-at-his-home/
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April 22, 2025 2:19pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360661490/winston-peters-says-new-members-bill-would-ensure-biological-definition-woman-and-man-are-defined
Good.
Next maybe he can introduce a bill to bring back the death penalty for certain crimes, such as the senseless killing of that US student at the Meadowbank bus stop.
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April 22, 2025 2:23pm
- MCōs
  
  The court decision in the UK is like manna from heaven for Winston with an election looming up in a year and a half.
  
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  April 22, 2025 3:53pm
  - Ghost
    
    It strange that people believe the man who helped create the woke public service now cares about what he helped create. Oh well, got to give it to Winston, he’s always able to pull the wool over 5% of the public’s eyes who are gullible enough to believe him
    
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    April 22, 2025 3:57pm
kiwi_chileno

Anticipointment. Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday in Chile. Was supposed to go the Burning of Judas in Plaza Waddington, Valparaíso. It was cancelled for ‘security reasons’ – crime is getting really bad. (It’s a big event – 3000+ people last year.) They hang and then set fire to an effigy stuffed with coins (the 30 pieces of silver) of someone who betrayed Chileans in the past year, usually a politician – Trump has been a past Judas. Usually, the Judas isn’t revealed until the hanging. This year’s was supposed to be the former Under-secretary of the Interior (Socialist Party) who’s on trial for rape.

I expected that this year’s Judas would be Evelyn Matthei, the moderate right’s Presidential candidate (leads the polls). She had a brain fart last week, re-opening the memory box. Matthei said that Chile under Allende was heading to Cuba-style totalitarianism; by 1973, Chile had been brought to a crisis, heading to civil war; the coup was the result of a collective failure and justified (the lesser of evils); deaths during the coup were inevitable and regrettable; subsequent deaths, disappearances, etc are indefensible human rights crimes. Matthei said what many Chileans think about the inevitability and necessity of the coup. Many Chileans also have the attitude of lo hecho en hecho – what’s done is done.

Matthei seemed to me an obvious Judas choice – Valpo is left-wing (it was Allende’s home-town) and the left are outraged by her comments. I’s also Navy HQ. The coup wasn’t Pincohet’s: Admiral Merino was the principal mover and persuaded a very reluctant Pinochet to commit. The Navy then acted first by taking control of Valpo. Merino was the junta’s 2IC and spokesman. He was converted to the merits of economic liberalisation before the coup by Chilean economists – they had a blueprint, el ladrillo, The Brick (it was thick as a brick) – and chaired the junta’s economic committee. In 2002, the Navy erected a public statue of Merino: a court ordered it’s removal a couple of years ago because it was offensive to the memory and dignity of the Navy’s victims. Clips of Merino (English) from a matter-of-fact BBC Panorama documentary
https://youtu.be/9kOk_GIMgCs?t=890
https://youtu.be/9kOk_GIMgCs?t=2700
https://youtu.be/9kOk_GIMgCs?t=236
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