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April 29, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 29 April 2025

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General Debate

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Frank the tank

Simple questions:

1). Why can’t we have life sentences for individuals such as the garbage that killed that innocent overseas student last week (I don’t care if he/she is only 16)?
2). Why can’t we mandate maximum rates increases for council (i.e. say pegged to inflation)?
3). Why can’t we sack public servants that disobey government directives (i.e. ACC and it’s DEI procurement)?

3 simple policies and all would be vote winners.
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April 29, 2025 8:10am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  What exactly are you referring to, by “ACC and its DEI procurement”? What was the Government directive, and what did ACC do that disobeyed it?
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:02pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    What’s with the downticks? It’s a fair question. A google of “ACC DEI procurement” doesn’t produce any results that go anywhere near making the case for somebody losing their job.
    
    If your proposal is to be implemented, the terms, and the means of enforcement including evidentiary standards, would need to be defined.
    
    Here’s a hypothetical. The Minister orders the departmental head of procurement to make sure that the contract goes to the firm owned by the Minister’s brother. Is that a “government directive”?
    
    How would you propose to prove, to the standard required to defend a dismissal in an employment tribunal, that somebody was doing “DEI procurement”? The fact that this contract went to a Maori woman isn’t proof of DEI, any more than the fact that that contract didn’t go to a Maori woman is proof of racism and sexism.
    
    I mean, do you want engagement, discussion and debate on the points you’ve made or don’t you?
    
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    April 29, 2025 2:37pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      The example you quote would be nepotism, not DEI.
      
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      April 29, 2025 3:40pm
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Is it a “government directive”? And if it isn’t, what is? The implication here is, that a “government directive” is something other than actual law, so not the outcome of a process where a proposal is put to Parliament as a bill and passed, after stages of debate, into an Act. If we’re going to make it a rule that failure to follow a “government directive” is a firing offence, it will need to be very clear what that actually means.
        
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        April 29, 2025 4:07pm
  - Paulus
    
    Every thing they could do without anybody knowing outside the Department !
    DEI there have special people for special arrangements, called part of DEI.
    Get Real !
    
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    April 29, 2025 3:29pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Who is “they”? What exactly are these “special arrangements”? How do you know about them if they’ve been done without anybody outside the department knowing about them? What “government directive” do they contravene?
      
      And is this really the standard of evidence on which you’re proposing people should lose their jobs?
      
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      April 29, 2025 4:12pm
- Simon
  
  Who benefits by NZ having a dysfunctional criminal system? Central planners, the state generally, lawyers, the charities racket, those embedded in the Justice system & police.
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:57pm
G the giant from Dunedin

I note that the last week TPU have mentioned about ex pms taking cars as part of their perks of being an ex PM.

two things are noticeable, 1: Key is the only past PM not to have taken a car going back as far as Bulger, and 2: i notice Chris Hipkins has taken a car, why are we not hearing the outrage of this by the media, by other politicians, why is the TPU, not focusing on this hypocrisy (remembering Hipkins faux outrage of Luxon taking a housing grant legally while they were doing up the PM’s residence) while he is leader of the opposition, and he still wants to be PM, to me this stinks, he is still in politics, and should not be able to stand again for PM and take a past PM’s perk.
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April 29, 2025 8:12am
- pdm
  
  G – quote from the Taxpayers Union.
  `The Department of Internal Affairs buys and replaces these cars for ex PMs and/or spouses, with the exception of Chris Hipkins, who wasn’t in the job more than two years, and John Key, who declined the entitlement.’
  
  I am no fan of Hipkins but it seems he is not entitled to an ex PM Car. He probably has a car as Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:56am
  - nova
    
    What about Bill English? He was PM for less than a year, so presumably also doesn’t get the entitlement?
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:10am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He got one as well, I know there is the 2 year period, but the TPU reported on who got cars and what type, English and Hipkins weee on that list
      
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      April 29, 2025 10:49am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Well, they listed the names who took them, and both Hipkins name and Bill English’s names and types of car was stated, I read the 2 year thing, but English also only served less than a year as PM, I css as n only go by their original post last week about this.
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:32am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Sorry, i read it wrong, but Hipkins got a car in 2021, why i dont know but the cost was not revealed, something stinks even more, because it sounds like he was not entitled to a car. Bill English received an ex PM car after 8 moths as PM
    //www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fex-pms-and-their-choices-of-taxpayer-funded-cars-v0-n1f6k7okjpwe1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dae23b64d8505f18b019413d4174b9a347fc60047
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:32pm
    - nova
      
      Hipkins was entitled to the car that was purchased for him in 2021, as he was a government minister at the time. He was also entitled to retain it in 2023, both as an ex PM, and as the Leader of the Opposition. But this only entitles him to 1 car, so it is a moot point as to why he has retained it. Evidently the OIA decided to include his ongoing costs along with the breakdown for other ex PMs, but not the purchase as it was not directly acquired for that purpose. I think the TPU made an error to say that he had declined a car. It also looks as if a 2 year tenure as PM is not required for PMs post 2014, the current law does not require this, as evidenced by the fact that Bill English has one. And the law itself:
      https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2017/0261/latest/whole.html
      
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      April 29, 2025 9:09pm
- Simon
  
  The tax system is garage which is running out of control. TPU are another NZ style racket.
  
  Why does a Tax payer union run political polls for eg? Not their core function.
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:00pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They certainly are looking like fools, currently they are running hikoi in ever small town from top to bottom, there has been one photo of about 5 people in attendance, and they had the cheek to send me the begging bowl
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:18pm
- Paulus
  
  Do not ex PMs have the unfetted use of Government Chauffered cars -and Bolger is stil the worse offender I understand.
  Dame Jacinda if she returns, gets all the perks too.
  
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  April 29, 2025 3:31pm
  - Quail
    
    Have a fading memory that Winston himself was pretty reluctant to relinquish his car a couple of elections back
    
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    April 29, 2025 5:14pm
Scott

All of Spain and Portugal and parts of France are without electricity right now. And there is no word when power will be restored. Supermarket shelves have been emptied in panic buying. Europe is heading back to the dark ages.

It may totally be coincidence but the Daily Mail reports:

“The power cuts come just days after Spain’s power grid ran entirely on renewable energy, including wind, solar and hyrdro power, for a whole day for the first time on April 16.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14656089/Panic-blackout-Spain-indoors-queues-form-food-petrol-restore-power.html

Maybe this is a preview of net zero?
Net zero is the way forward comrades!
The way forward to the new dark ages where your house will be cold and dark. You will eat bugs and own nothing.

Apparently in 2025 this is where we are? We can’t even keep the lights on. Personally, I blame the Greens. 😎
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April 29, 2025 8:13am
- Northshoredoc
  
  ‘Technical issue’ between France and Spain’s energy connection – European trade body
  published at 09:29
  09:29
  BREAKING
  The trade body that represents the power industry in Europe tells BBC’s The World Tonight a problem occurred with the energy connection between France and Spain earlier today.
  Kristian Ruby, the general secretary of EURELECTRIC, also describes the outage as a “50 year, if not 100 year incident….something very very rare ”
  Ruby tells BBC’s World Tonight they are aware of a “specific incident with an interconnector between France and Spain”.
  The general secretary says: “There was a specific technical issue that arose there and hence the Spanish grid was disconnected from the broader European grid earlier today.
  “Now, judging from that situation alone, you wouldn’t think that would cause a power cut across the entire Iberian peninsula, so my assessment is there is likely to have been other elements in this equation that have caused this situation,” he adds.’
  
  https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c9wpq8xrvd9t
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:43am
  - Paulus
    
    Woweee – it is the Europen Common Market where everybody is equal under President Von de Leyden !
    
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    April 29, 2025 3:34pm
- redeye
  
  Also note this demonstration of the importance of cash. If you’re in Spain or Portugal right now only cash can be used to purchase your essentials.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:49am
- wsk12345
  
  It sounds like something minor tripped and caused frequency to fall. Here were have spinning hydro plant that would automatically generate in response to the frequency and if they did not arrest the fall, blocks of load dropped until it arrests, thus avoiding full cascade failure. It sounds like they did not have any large spinning plant on standby? I’m guessing they rely on the links to France etc?
  There was 78% solar/wind and 11% nuclear at the time of failure and only 3% gas plant for the inertia.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:56am
  - nova
    
    Nuclear power plants should also provide grid inertia.
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:12am
  - Scott
    
    WSK12345- you seem to have a grasp of the technical issues.
    Could these problems have anything to do with a reliance on renewable energy, wind and solar?
    It just seems such a catastrophic failure, power down in entire countries for an undetermined length of time?
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:15am
    - Jack5
      
      No-one seems to be blaming renewable-source power, but, just before the crash, says the Wall Street Journal, solar was providing about 53 per cent of Spain’s electricity, wind 11 per cent. So renewables about two-thirds of the supply.
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:56am
    - wsk12345
      
      It’s really bad. Major under frequency load shedding has been used once (I think) in NZ in 30’yeaes and we avoided cascade failure (from which its several days to reposed the grid).
      
      Absolutely could be due to wind/solar if there are insufficient plant with ability to ramp up instantaneously (within say 0.1 seconds). But I find it hard to believe they don’t have reserves for such situations.
      
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      April 29, 2025 6:35pm
    - wsk12345
      
      I would expect a system operator to make an assessment of the potential very short term Cha he on output from intermittent resources and have instant reserves in place to match rhst. But maybe it’s the one time (hahahahah) that models did t produce perfect results.
      
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      April 29, 2025 6:38pm
  - kiwi_chileno
    
    Was it a cyberattack (DDoS, injection attack on SCADA systems)?
    
    https://www-infobae-com.translate.goog/espana/2025/04/28/el-cni-no-descarta-ninguna-hipotesis-y-ya-investiga-una-gran-actividad-inusual-procedente-del-norte-de-africa-y-por-que-en-cinco-segundos-desaparecio-el-60-de-toda-la-luz/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
    
    https://elpais-com.translate.goog/sociedad/2025-04-28/lo-que-se-sabe-y-lo-que-no-del-apagon-masivo-en-espana-la-gran-incognita-la-causa.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
    
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    April 29, 2025 12:43pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Coming to a woke net-zero idiocracy near you!
  
  Michael Shellenberger:
  Over-Reliance On Renewables Behind Catastrophic Blackouts in Spain
  https://www.public.news/p/over-reliance-on-renewables-behind
  
  Watts Up with That:
  Congrats to Spain! Nation goes 100% renewable as of April 16th 2025! – But…Then Mass Blackouts Hit Spain, Portugal:
  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/04/28/congrats-to-spain-nation-goes-100-renewable-as-of-april-16th-2025-butthen-mass-blackouts-hit-spain-portugal/
  
  In clown-world always carry cash.
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:13am
- sungsamning
  
  The sound you can hear from Christchurch is me rolling on the floor laughing.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:38am
- cmm
  
  It is likely not factual that they ran entirely on renewables. They are connected to a wider grid which has other sources too.
  Generally these statements are more puff than truth.
  Many generators pump power onto the same grid and many buyers take load from the same grid. The electrons just obey the laws of physics and don’t care who generated them and who bought them.
  Thus people buying renewable power are getting a mix.
  There is a problem though that such grids tend to not be managed for stability as other ideological goals creep in.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:45am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    As I understand it, the Spanish govt was boasting on the 16th April “look Ma, we ran on zero base-load power today. Renewables rock!”
    
    then a week or so later….
    
    Pooof! Grid crash across the nation!
    
    It’s not like serious energy engineers haven’t warned this will happen! Australia appears to be steadily steaming towards the same fate with “Blackout Bowen” at the helm.
    
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    April 29, 2025 6:25pm
- Handyman
  
  The European electricity system is based on a socialist mindset. That is, every country can pull electricity from the central grid but is under no obligation to contribute.
  In practice, this allows countries to virtue signal with weather dependent generation knowing they can import coal and nuclear power over the grid.
  Imports (at night) are always priced more than local solar (during daytime) hence the argument that solar is cheaper. It is not.
  
  The levelized cost of weather dependent generation should be calculated at grid level and include the cost of standby reliable generation.
  
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  April 29, 2025 5:38pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I believe Norway is starting to get pissed off with their inter-connectors to Europe being increasingly called upon to prop up net zero instability.
    
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    April 29, 2025 7:05pm
Im Right

I see the lefty blogsphere is predicting a snap election….
BTW- they predicted one at 3/6/9mths and of course the one year mark of this Govt as well.
Bring it on I say, the left are in disarray and Maori party is a poisoned chalice for Labour.
From what I read (comments) they are all banking on Winnie getting 5%+ and going with Labour….oh and of course the greens – who he despises.
It may well be a great example for the left ‘be careful what you wish for’
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April 29, 2025 8:18am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  An early election will see the government trounced, never before has an early election been won by the incumbent
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:35am
  - Melbury
    
    Clark won the winter election of 2002.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:35pm
    - burt
      
      It was only a few months early and she went early because her popularity was still riding high and scandals were just starting to erupt all around here.
      
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      April 29, 2025 3:13pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Peters has already ruled out working with Labour at the next election with these crocks, his words, and since Christmas
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:36am
  - kowtow
    
    You take him at his word ?
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:57am
    - David Garrett
      
      Kow: Quite so…as has always been the case Peters will go wherever he can get the most baubles
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:03am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I doubt he would go with them. They are not the Labour of Helen Clark. They are basically indistinguishable from Te Greens and TPM for all intents and purposes.
        
        I believe he went with Labour in 2017 because of Nat’s hatred towards him and unwillingness to negotiate with him, and Labour *seemed* to be the same somewhat sane Labour of the Helen Clark years.
        
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        April 29, 2025 6:35pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    The last 45 years have shown us that Winston’s word isn’t worth much.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:55pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I think there is a law that an election is not able to be held so close to a local body election, meaning next year at the earliest
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:59am
- Philview
  
  I think it could only happen if NZ First try and bring it about. The only rationale being to take advantage of good poll numbers for their party. The media of course will be wanting some more cash from the Left so a good incentive to stoke instability.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:06am
- Plumbs
  
  I am a centre left supporter and I have not seen these reports.I am in Perth for a month to observe Oz election.Good news in this morning re Carneys win in Canada and Labor is odds on favourite to win here on Saturday.With the coalition of chaos dipping in the polls back in NZ it might be time to bring on the Champers methinks.You all can down tick till you are blue in the face,but facts is facts
  
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  April 29, 2025 3:18pm
  - Plumbs
    
    Further to the above as a delightful cherry on top of the cake Trumps poll rating is underwater.Oh happy happy days.I am off to the bottlo for brace of Dom perignon grand cru for a warm up celebration.
    
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    April 29, 2025 5:06pm
  - ISeeRed
    
    Your job is visiting countries to “observe” elections? What a BS non-job that is.
    
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    April 29, 2025 5:45pm
    - Plumbs
      
      After working for 56 years I have earned a comfortable retirement.I have in the past been a union delegate for 1000 souls at the glass works in Penrose for 8 years.I then went back to my trade and employed 35 staff including apprentices,I am proud of my achievements,What pray telll have you done Wooster old boy.I have a comfortable passive income in retirement,my family is prosperous,I have nothing to apologise for.I am an ex Labour Party branch secretary,would you deny I have tried to improve the lot of hard working Kiwis.
      
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      April 29, 2025 8:29pm
      - Plumbs
        
        [Mod – stop with the abuse]
        
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        April 29, 2025 9:51pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        It all fits. Union guy. Labour Party branch secretary.
        
        You probably voted for Lange in 1987 – and with pride, despite the previous 3 years telling you where this was going, you did it for partisanship.
        
        You surely must have known he’d screw you and yours into the ground and so it is entirely fitting that you’re celebrating the rise of Mark Carney to PM of Canada in 2025.
        
        He headed up two G7 central banks, worked for more than a decade at Goldman Sachs, and chaired both Brookfield Asset Management and Bloomberg.
        
        [Mod – deleted]
        
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        April 29, 2025 10:09pm
      - Mike
        
        Poor Tom. He obviously hates Carney. It must be very upsetting for Tom that his hero, Donald J Trump, single handedly guaranteed Carney’s election.
        
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        April 30, 2025 7:01am
      - ISeeRed
        
        You do it for fun? Even worse.
        
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        April 30, 2025 10:00am
- Paulus
  
  Maori Party are a Poisened Chalice for all New Zealand currently, and cannot see any amelioration in the acceptable future only a continuation of chaos, which they and many others want.
  
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  April 29, 2025 3:37pm
  - Agricola
    
    Labour’s gangrenous limb would be a more appropriate metaphor, with the horrid Greens also afflicted with necrotising fasciitis
    
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    April 29, 2025 6:08pm
  - Plumbs
    
    I am ell aware of what labour didOn the whole I thought it was positive,particularly national super.Tell me you RYNJ s that the Ozzie super scheme is not the duckd nuts,Over here it is in creditably popular
    S
    
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    April 30, 2025 2:22am
Cassandra

News: “A leading conservative cardinal urged the Roman Catholic church to stand up to the “gay lobby” as jostling began ahead of a vote to choose the next pope.”
There was comment here recently about this. It’s a difficult topic. The “leading cardinal” will be accused of homophobia but there should be no lobbies in the Church. It’s a private matter and, given abstinence, how could it be an issue?
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April 29, 2025 8:25am
- artemisia
  
  It would not be surprising if numbers of gay RC priests were higher than the general population. For generations it has probably been a quiet way to avoid the ‘confirmed bachelor’ side-eye.
  
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  April 29, 2025 8:49am
- Philview
  
  There has been something about the recent adoring NZ media coverage of Pope Francis that sniffs of a political agenda. The media always have an agenda of some sort.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:10am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.28am, null bikes today.

A cool, calm, dry morning in the Capital, ideal for cycling.

There are plenty of bikes around, but they’re not parked in the expensively provided facility.

I propose that it be named for our departing mayor, as they are both clearly useless.
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April 29, 2025 8:28am
- AitchW
  
  The cyclists are having a day off to grieve Whanau’s decision not to run for mayor.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:42am
  - pdm
    
    Aitch – Perhaps they are all circling the Wellington Council Chambers with their Palestinian and Hamas flags at half mast.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:59am
I remember when

With the return of various speed limits around the country we have heard the expected wails of concern.
Concern that was almost totally missing when the limits were reduced in haste.
There are obvious cases where the concerns have justification and no reason why these limits shouldn’t be retained.
However, when was it impossible for motorists to reduce speed when necessary regardless of the speed limit.
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April 29, 2025 8:28am
- alloytoo
  
  I recall being told when doing my license to:
  
  “Drive To The Conditions”
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:35am
  - pdm
    
    Me too alloytoo – 5 October 1961.
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:00am
    - Don Beckett
      
      You are a young fella, pdm. I got my license when I was 15 in 1957. Cop sat in the car with me, asked me 3 questions, then drove around town with a hill stop & start etc.
      Back to the council chambers, 5/- paid (5 shillings = 50c., then license for 1 year, to be renewed each year for 5/-. 🙂
      
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      April 29, 2025 10:31am
      - peterwn
        
        Local cop complained that people failed the driving test because they did not know the Road Code.
        
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        April 29, 2025 11:29am
      - alloytoo
        
        I obtained mine in 1989 a few weeks after my 18th birthday.
        
        The examiner, a pleasant lady said (and I quote)
        
        “you’re not going to kill anybody”
        
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        April 29, 2025 12:00pm
      - rouppe
        
        I got mine in 1977. Can’t remember what the examiner said, if anything.
        
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        April 29, 2025 1:12pm
      - OlderChas
        
        Had gone up to 7/6d when I got mine in 1961.
        
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        April 29, 2025 1:31pm
      - Jethrod
        
        Got mine in 1964….age 16. The traffic cop was a guy called Shocker Shaw, he wanted a ride in the country that morning, so off we went . Back for a hill start on Hillcrest hill, then back to the Council Chambers for rubber stamping. His only comment was ” a good thing ya father is not here to hear the grated gears” 5 Bob please!
        
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        April 29, 2025 4:47pm
    - pdm
      
      I was almost 15 and a half DB. Some of my mates got their licences days after they turned 15.
      
      Like you I was asked a few questions, parallel parked in the main street of Waipawa, did a hill start on the hill by the Waipawa Clock then a kilometre later had to reverse about 10 yards back up a hill. I still do not know anyone else that had to reverse up hill.
      
      Passed okay and I remember the Traffic Officer telling my father I was a very cautious and careful driver.
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:10am
      - Michael Sommerville
        
        I had a friend who got it on his 15th birthday!
        
        The cop had plenty of questions but Doug passed OK.
        
        6 0
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        April 29, 2025 2:09pm
    - Paulus
      
      Me, about 1955 if I remember, and so far a clean record.
      
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      April 29, 2025 3:38pm
- sungsamning
  
  Ah, thanks for the heads up. I must send a than kyou e.mail.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:40am
Cassandra

To explain Cardinal Muller’s position: “If Jesus says that marriage is between a man and a woman, no one can change this doctrine. The homosexual lobby wants to equate marriage with unions between people of the same sex, but this totally contradicts the doctrine of the Bible.”
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April 29, 2025 8:28am
- gravedodger
  
  Aah, Cass, so many confused as to what is a Woman and a Man?
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:27am
- Don Beckett
  
  Cardinal Muller is a very good man, strong on Church Doctrine & Tradition.
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:33am
- David Garrett
  
  Cass: thoroughly lapsed Catholic that I am, i am totally with the good Cardinal on this
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:06am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  I remember an interview with a creature designer from Weta, on the challenges of designing Smaug for the Hobbit movies. He said, of course we’d like to do something new and unexpected, but at the end of the day there’s only so much you can do to a dragon before it’s just not a dragon any more.
  
  Same here. Of course they’d like to be relevant, sympathetic and in tune with the times, but at the end of the day there’s only so much you can do to the Catholic faith before it’s just not the Catholic faith any more.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:50am
- PurplePen
  
  There’s religious marriage and then there’s marriage for the state’s purposes. It’s unfortunate that the same word is used for both as the religious reason gets conflated with the state’s reasons.
  
  The state needs people that create a union or ‘marriage’ if you will, to register it to protect tax, property and progeny. The 3000 or so religions all have their own reasons.
  
  It would help if government just did a search and replace, replacing marriage with union or civil union in all legislation leaving the word marriage for religions. Although I gather in some countries if you’re civil unioned it’s not recognised unless it’s labelled marriage.
  
  There is nothing stopping any religious person getting married in thy eyes of their church etc. There is no requirement by their religion to go through with the state marriage part.
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:02pm
  - rouppe
    
    The religious part is a wedding?
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:16pm
    - PurplePen
      
      I guess so. The state part is making verbal statements to each other as spelled out in the Act before a qualified officer and signing the state’s registry.
      
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      April 29, 2025 1:50pm
  - greybeard
    
    There is also the marriage of a vehicle’s chassis to the body: in other words, two disparate entities which come together to form a new and powerful combination.
    Something that “same-sex marriages” can never achieve.
    
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    April 29, 2025 6:53pm
Bridgenag

German prosecutors charge woman for reproducing Nazi symbols after she publishes an image of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach raising his arm at suspicious angle

“This is probably the dumbest, most monumentally retarded speech crime case we have had here in Germany, which is really saying something.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/german-prosecutors-charge-woman-for?r=4oxscl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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April 29, 2025 8:30am
MCōs

A 14yo Indian cricketer hit a 37 ball century in the IPL last night including eleven sixes.
Two years out of primary school
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April 29, 2025 8:46am
- pdm
  
  And we all thought Sachin Tendulkar was a child prodigy – he was 16years 205 days old when he played his first test.
  
  When will this new fellow step out for India in a test.
  
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  April 29, 2025 8:52am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes, and he only turned 14 at the end of March
  
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  April 29, 2025 8:55am
  - lifesgood
    
    The joy of youth, absolutely fearless…and talented, this young man.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:38am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Let’s hope he emigrates to NZ. 🙂
      
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      April 29, 2025 10:34am
      - AitchW
        
        He’ll make far, far more money in India playing cricket than he could ever make here.
        
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        April 29, 2025 10:51am
      - pdm
        
        DB not sure he would like some of the seaming wickets here initially anyway.
        
        Remember Gangully’s team back 25/30 years ago and they were seasoned test players mostly.
        
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        April 29, 2025 11:12am
  - john1234
    
    Some are suggesting he’s one and a half years older than his official age. I guess record keeping in India isn’t very complete.
    
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    April 29, 2025 11:26am
    - greybeard
      
      Goodness gracious me !
      
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      April 29, 2025 6:54pm
- kowtow
  
  Yes , it’s telling how commentary focusses on the really important things .
  
  Kashmir , Deep State , religious rivalry between nuclear powers …..well , not so much.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:05am
Maggy Wassilieff

Rare atmospheric phenomenon attacks renewables….

Spain & Portugal close down

https://www.joannenova.com.au/2025/04/days-after-spain-reaches-100-renewable-mass-blackouts-hit-due-to-mysterious-rare-atmospheric-phenomenon/
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April 29, 2025 8:54am
- MCōs
  
  I suppose it depends who you believe for a start.
  Here is another article that provides actual figures for the renewable energy sources and they add up to far less than 100%.
  In fact it adds up to fact less percentagewise than NZ
  https://renewablesnow.com/news/spains-renewables-surge-to-55-8-percent-share-in-jan-1270354/
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:10am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    No electrical generation is emission-free. The mining of the materials, building wind turbines and installing them every 15 to 20 years requires emissions. Removing the wind turbines also contributes to emissions.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:16am
  - All_on_Red
    
    When the blackout hit Spain was running 78% Renewable.
    60 million people on the Iberian Peninsular and some of France lost power.
    There was chaos.
    ‘The outage was triggered by a dramatic drop of more than 10 GW in electricity supply, linked directly to the unpredictable nature of renewables. Wind speeds fluctuated significantly on April 28, dropping generation capacity sharply just as demand surged midday. ‘
    
    They were warned
    ‘2022, a team of researchers modeled the Spanish grid with large use of wind and solar and warned that, without significant investments in flexibility and inertia-providing technologies, the grid’s stability would be at risk. The authors show that as coal, nuclear, and combined-cycle plants are phased out, curtailment of wind and solar will rise dramatically, and grid inertia would fall, increasing the likelihood of frequency instability’
    
    Lots of data and vid of the consequences in this link.
    https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/04/28/europe-asking-who-turned-the-lights-out-n3802225
    
    Oh and apparently the weather was fine but the wind was fluctuating…
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:32am
    - alloytoo
      
      “Unreliables”, not renewable.
      
      19 1
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      April 29, 2025 9:36am
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      It would be good if, in about three months time, a government spokesman could explain clearly what steps New Zealand is taking to minimise the likelihood of the dreadful power outages that occurred in Spain.
      Clear steps must be explained, for clear steps provide accountability. Vague steps provide wily politicians with plenty of wriggle room.
      
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      April 29, 2025 9:46am
      - RoboRob
        
        Sadly Luxon is still firmly on the wind and solar bandwagon. Any country that builds out a significant percentage of its energy source as wind is going to suffer grid outages like Spain. You end up with a grid that might have massive spikes in energy supply and huge dips. Somehow a consistant flow of energy needs to be provided. As the % of energy from reliable sources drops that gets much harder.
        
        Fortunately with have a large amount of hydro and geothermal to buffer some of these issues. This isn’t the case for the EU countries that are busy replacing coal & gas with wind.
        
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        April 29, 2025 9:54am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Luxon is encouraging electric powered data centres to establish in NZ.
        Note that we have already had mill closures because they had electricity issues, so why would it be a good idea to add to our load for very little return.
        Luxon is a meddler, not a manager.
        
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        April 29, 2025 11:26am
  - lifesgood
    
    Fly over Portugal, as I’ve done. The whole country is a mass of wind turbines, absolutely ruined the countryside. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:39am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Most of the Iberian peninsula is hot and dry as feck, getting <600mm rainfall a year, the land is hilly and isn't worth much agriculturally without water so may as well get what they can out of it with wind and solar.
      
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      April 29, 2025 12:08pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Spain might have less renewables then NZ but in NZ the vast majority of our ‘renewable’ energy is from predictable hydro. Spains is from Wind. Wind it eratic and unpredictable. It appears the Spainish grid couldn’t copy with the variable supply and peak demand.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:51am
  - cmm
    
    Not all renewables are the same.
    The most important criterion when talking about generation is whether it is dispatchable. ie can it be turned on and off at will.
    
    Solar and wind are clearly not dispatchable since we have no control over how the sun shines or wind blows.
    
    Hydro is dispatchable. The water sits in the dam waiting to be turned on day or night, no matter the weather.
    This makes for predictable generation – something unachievable with solar and wind.
    
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    April 29, 2025 11:55am
- MCōs
  
  This is what Eduardo Prieto, director of Spanish transmission system operator Red Eléctrica had to say
  https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-portugal-power-cut-europe-electric-grid-pedro-sanchez/#:~:text=Eduardo%20Prieto%2C%20director%20of%20Spanish,network%20at%2012%3A38.%E2%80%9D
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:18pm
Cassandra

An Auckland teacher, Head of English at Northcote College, refuses to use the new English curriculum because, mainly it seems, it doesn’t mention the Treaty of Waitangi. The obvious question * remains unanswered.

* what has the ToW got to do with teaching English?
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April 29, 2025 9:00am
- Raphael
  
  if the teacher is refusing to their job, then they should not be teaching
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:06am
  - Yvette
    
    Raphael, what is wrong with this English teacher?
    Can they not satisfy her or his TOW obsession by setting pupils to write an essay discussing the difference between “we were here first”, “the tyranny of the majority” and how political, judicial and the teacher’s own bias may eventually colonise the original coloniser, but leave the population reliving the Groundhog topic of the 1840s rather than living in the present.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:23am
  - cmm
    
    The English teacher hopefully understands that they is a plural pronoun.
    
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    April 29, 2025 11:57am
- TripeWryter
  
  Cassandra: he won’t be sacked, though.
  The ‘progressives’ in the education field don’t like it that their cherished notions are being challenged.
  I’m relieved that my step-grandsons decided that Northcote College wasn’t for them.
  They’re nearly through the system but I worry about my young granddaughter and who will be teaching her.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:10am
  - mandk
    
    I agree he won’t be sacked.
    
    Teaching pre-colonial Māori literature is really important. //
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:32am
  - KH
    
    Of course as a man of principle he is going to resign.
    Waiting, waiting.
    
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    April 29, 2025 5:39pm
- MCōs
  
  Here is an opinion he wrote on the subject for Spinoff that outlines why he will refuse to teach the latest draft of the English curriculum.
  https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/28-04-2025/why-i-have-told-my-principal-i-will-not-use-the-new-english-curriculum?utm_source=spinoff-share-button&utm_medium=spinoff-web-mobile
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:24am
  - alloytoo
    
    Refusing a lawful order should result in sacking.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:38am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Maybe he could teach the Maori version of English that they taught before 1840. //
      
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      April 29, 2025 10:42am
    - MCōs
      
      I was only following orders, your honour
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:06am
      - alloytoo
        
        What part of “lawful” confused you?
        
        This isn’t a moral dilemma on the battlefield this policy from a lawfully elected government.
        
        If he doesn’t want to do what he is contractually obligated to do fire him.
        
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        April 29, 2025 1:26pm
      - Jack5
        
        This is from the Spin-off article by the Northcote College teacher who rejects the new English curriculum:
        
        “…, this curriculum deliberately tries to steer teachers and students away from what we know works to improve educational outcomes for Māori students: progress-based learning; creative, and expressive writing; collaborative projects; active integration of Te Tiriti o Waitangi; real-world competencies; engaging critically with media and society; high flexibility allowing student voice, choice and agency.
        
        This would be Revolution 101, at a taxpayer-funded school.
        
        No wonder China is surging ahead of us. Western education is choked by Woke hokum from people who can’t do maths.
        
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        April 29, 2025 2:56pm
    - sirknz
      
      It is a thing in employment law that an employeecan be fired for ignoring any lawful order from their employer.
      
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      April 29, 2025 12:23pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Thanks.
    
    They (I’m not sure of its pronouns) lost me right from the start on the very first sentence, ‘Since 2007, New Zealand schools have had an excellent curriculum, acknowledged the world over and used successfully in diverse communities throughout the country’.
    
    It is clearly obvious we didn’t have an excellent corriculum based on student results (unless the issue is the teachers themselves). Any teacher that thinks otherwise shouldn’t be in the job.
    
    I skimmed the rest and the DEI keywords all through it show exactly where the ‘teacher’ stands. If they aren’t willing to do the job becuase of their principles, they should do the honerable thing and resign. If not they should be fired.
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:43am
  - PurplePen
    
    He writes “what we know works to improve educational outcomes for Māori students: progress-based learning; creative, and expressive writing; collaborative projects; active integration of Te Tiriti o Waitangi; real-world competencies; engaging critically with media and society; high flexibility allowing student voice, choice and agency.”.
    
    Ironically, why is a colonial document, the ToW, necessary to enable teaching anyone from the Maori race. It would seem all the methods he’s listed are fairly standard colonial tools otherwise. Or have I missed something.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:37pm
  - PurplePen
    
    “Students throughout Aotearoa currently enjoy knowledge-rich curricula.”
    
    Then why are we finding job-seekers that can barely put a sentence let alone a paragraph together.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:39pm
  - PurplePen
    
    “In an era where so many adolescents struggle with moderate to severe mental health challenges”.
    
    Do they? Based on who’s evidence. And if it is the case, that’s a very serious problem right there.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:40pm
    - Paulus
      
      There is a serious increase in Mental Health problems in New Zealand and this is growing exponentially but nobody will give us any analysis of the patients and any other breakdown.
      Didn’t labour put a $2 biilion into it with not a single new Mental Heath bed.
      And he is going to be the new Mayor of Wellington – makes you sick too !
      Lets have some analysis – why not – you can guess.
      
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      April 29, 2025 3:47pm
      - Ghost
        
        Unless briscoes have a sale on $2 billion will only buy a few pillows and blankets…… beds are at least $4 billion
        
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        April 29, 2025 3:56pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I bet this young Maori man is damn glad his high school encouraged him with his Shakespearian endeavours..
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/maori-shakespearian-mlago-morris-life-changing-pathway-to-top-us-university/DIR63RNFYJHUFLR324CJHKZQAE/
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/matariki-special/audio/2018944671/m-lago-morris
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:05am
  - Scott
    
    Quite right Maggy. Shakespeare speaks to the universal human condition. It’s interesting that English literature was divided into Shakespearean and non Shakespearean.
    
    To be or not to be. That is the question. 😎
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:47am
    - Northshoredoc
      
      I wonder how Will Shakespeare would’ve parodied Donald ?
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:38am
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        I will have such revenges on you both,
        That all the world shall—I will do such things,—
        What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
        The terrors of the earth
        
        King Lear
        
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        April 29, 2025 11:57am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Each to there own,
      Learning Shakespeare as a 16 yr old, Was the catalyst to leave school and too many letters in Maths.
      Incidently, The best thing I had done. Mind you I had to play catch up in later life with Maths etc.
      Shakespeare not at all. As an avid reader I despised being forced to read something I did’nt like or understand.
      Much the same with NZ news, I don’t bother unless there is an interesting link .
      
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      April 29, 2025 1:18pm
      - slijmbal
        
        @Master
        
        have to agree wrt to Shakespeare – we had separate English Literature and Language exams. Had a more classical education (ancient Greek even!) and complained loudly that the notes for Shakespeare were longer than the actual plays and the language was so different as to be irrelevant to modern English.
        
        Didn’t stop them force feeding us about 20 of the plays and some of his sonnets. I thought his sonnets were crap btw. To this day (60+ years later) I can still recite “Now is the Winter of our discontent…” etc. as we had to rote learn tracts of the stuff or get detention.
        
        You’re looking at a nerd who would go to the library on a Saturday just to read all day so it wasn’t about the written word just his.
        
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        April 29, 2025 3:28pm
    - Jack5
      
      Duke University’s Karsh International Scholars Programme is quite extensive.
      
      Here’s what a Karsh scholarship covers:
      
      “Your tuition, room and board, mandatory fees, demonstrated need that exceeds those costs, and three summers of funding for research, unpaid internships, and other opportunities that will advance your academic career.”
      
      https://ousf.duke.edu/merit-scholarships/karsh-international-scholars-program/
      
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      April 29, 2025 2:27pm
- John Loveridge
  
  Teachers are very odd individuals. That one needs a thick ear.
  
  The fucking treaty has NOTHING to do with teaching English.
  
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  April 29, 2025 2:52pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Reading his articel.
  It would appear the English teacher is having a wee hissy fit/Temper tantrum because they didn’t like HIS and his woke mates IDEAS and ditched them.
  
  . In 2021, I began working with other secondary English teachers, primary school teachers, educational researchers, and academic experts to update or “refresh” the curriculum for the English learning area.
  
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  April 29, 2025 3:22pm
pdm

`* what has the ToW got to do with teaching English?’

Indoctrination 2017 until 2023.

It is going to take a lot of wearing down.
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April 29, 2025 9:07am
Observant Octagenarian

Did Andrew Little ever actually achieve anything, before or during his leadership of the Labour Party?
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April 29, 2025 9:12am
- RoboRob
  
  Pike River?
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:20am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Successfully defended a defamation claim against a dead man even after having to apologise for his false assertion.
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/328552/little-'very-pleased'-no-damages-awarded
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:10am
    - RoboRob
      
      A disgusting event that proved just how difficult it is to win a defamation case in NZ.
      
      11 1
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      April 29, 2025 10:56am
      - Jack5
        
        Defamation difficulty is good for blogs.
        
        7 0
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        April 29, 2025 1:39pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Well yesterday idiots were blaming the rape and murder of the CHCH woman in 2022 on Luxon and Goldsmith, even though Ardern was PM and Little was the justice minister when their policy was to empty the prisons. just like Burton in the Clark rein, their soft on crime and emptying the prisons has been laid bare for all to see, that’s what Little has been about.
  
  And he was minister of Health when Labour decided to combine all DHB’s and change the system into a bureaucratic shithole during a pandemic.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:23am
  - RoboRob
    
    Yet National continue to fund TVNZ and RNZ to spin crap like that.
    
    31 0
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    April 29, 2025 9:45am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They were FB posts
      
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      April 29, 2025 10:48am
      - RoboRob
        
        Morons! Who cares what people say on social media 🙂
        
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        April 29, 2025 11:09am
- Taieri
  
  Did Andrew Little ever actually achieve anything
  ———
  
  Yes. His resignation.
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:27am
- Libertarians are right
  
  When the Pike River miners came to his union pointing out safety issues his union basically ignored them so you could argue he achieved something there.
  
  22 2
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  April 29, 2025 9:34am
  - RoboRob
    
    Their deaths
    
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    April 29, 2025 9:46am
  - Jack5
    
    What should the miners have done? Gone on strike?
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:41pm
    - Mike
      
      Quite right.
      
      5 0
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      April 29, 2025 3:37pm
      - Paulus
        
        I believe they would not have gone on strike as they were very well paid.
        
        3 0
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        April 29, 2025 3:50pm
- sungsamning
  
  Yes, indeed. He raised the majorities of the National incumbent in any seat he stood in.
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:48am
BeaB

Sadly teachers like him want our children to learn about this country only through NZ/Maori stories, poetry, myths and legends. That’s ok of course but the wider world is their world too and they need to have an outward-looking education as well.
A family member was looking forward to going to high school because “I can start learning more not just all that Māori stuff”. I warned him not to get too excited and now he tells me there’s even more.
I just hope someone finds a balance so that we can all enjoy and appreciate all our cultural influences and, of course, literature.
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April 29, 2025 9:18am
- PurplePen
  
  My hope is that teenagers of today will get fed up with it all and reject it when they finally reach adulthood. That’s usually the way with a generation. They’ll reject whatever the adults are into. Let’s hope so anyway.
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:43pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    My kids already have, as they’ve transitioned to adulthood. They’re so sick of all the Maori shit that they just reject it outright.
    
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    April 29, 2025 2:54pm
  - Paulus
    
    They won’t as they are indotrinated with a Haka and the Teachers of New Zealand have a lot to answer for.
    Shame they are almost all Women.
    
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    April 29, 2025 3:53pm
TripeWryter

Tory has clearly decided she would be toast in this year’s local body election in Wellington.
It should be a slap in the face for Stuff and its owner, Sinead Boucher.
Stuff, if you remember, backed Tory for Mayor of Wellington in 2022.
Stuff skewed the pre-election coverage to support her: she was a woman, a Maori woman, a young-ish Maori woman, a young-ish, ‘progressive’ Green Maori woman. Perfect.
Even Tory must have got an idea that the game might be up when Stuff began running stories about her not being at meetings and then about her drinking.
Will Andrew Little be any better? It seems a behind-the-scenes deal has been worked out among the ‘progressives’ in the Labour and Green parties.
I doubt he will be any better.
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April 29, 2025 9:20am
- R
  
  ‘Progressives’ ..in the Labou rparty’. Which progressives, I have only ever seen or heard dinosaurs who want to live in the ‘Dark Ages’ at somebody else’s expense
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:10pm
sirknz

It is never ‘unseasonal snow’ when they are still skiing in November…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/weather-new-heavy-rain-watch-for-northland-canterbury-thunderstorms-downpours-possible/PJYCAAW6PFHBHA4QXCUH4THDQ4/
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April 29, 2025 9:20am
RoboRob

I see Tori W is stepping aside. She is simply moving to a easier trough.

Instead of being mayor and having to do things and potentially be attacked over her performance and personal life, she is moving into one of the Maori council seats.

It’s a dream job. She gets a bit less money (I assume) but doesn’t need to do any work. She doesn’t even need to stand for election, instead she just needs to lobby iwi for the role.

What a scam and a great reason that the Maori seats should be removed.
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April 29, 2025 9:24am
- Im Right
  
  But…but Robo, how will she survive?
  She already confessed to struggle financially when getting a very nice mayor salary, a drop in income to a mere council seat, will have her visiting the food banks I surmise??
  (I believe her ‘nest egg’ was ruined when the sweet Reading Cinema deal fell through, what a spectacular deal for a multi billion dollar worldwide company it was too…..too good 😊)
  
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  April 29, 2025 9:58am
  - greybeard
    
    Probably for the money is why Little is returning to the Public Trough.
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:19am
    - David Garrett
      
      Grey: Yes indeed…employed lawyers need to earn roughly three times their salary to stay employed…i doubt Little was even able to generate enough fees to cover his salary once, let alone times three
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:50am
      - RoboRob
        
        Yes, the only reasons to return to the public trough would be
        1) Job not going well
        2) Job to hard (to much work)
        
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        April 29, 2025 1:37pm
  - Paulus
    
    Jus that she can go on the piss more without being Mayor.
    
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    April 29, 2025 3:54pm
TripeWryter

Here is part of the problem in New Zealand.
Just a few minutes ago a caller to Nick Mills, the host of a Newstalk ZB morning programme in Wellington, averred that she hoped voters would ‘get rid of the [Wellington] Maori ward’.
Nick Mills: ‘oh, that’s racist.’
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April 29, 2025 9:46am
- Gravelroad
  
  Can someone please confirm- in the upcoming Local Body elections, are most Councils going to include a referendum on whether or not to retain the Maori ward scheme?
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:03am
  - pdm
    
    Most have to.
    
    Tauranga is one exception I know of because of the commissioners which is suspect at best. Tauranga’s referendum will be 2029 by which time Mahe Drysdale will have everything under co governance going on the way he has started off.
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:09am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I wonder who is running the introduction of co governance.
      
      They all seem to be on the same page, therefore that begs the question- who wrote the page?
      
      9 1
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      April 29, 2025 11:57am
    - Ghost
      
      Tauranga must hold their referendum by march 28 2027
      
      https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/council/about-your-council/governance/representation-review
      
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      April 29, 2025 1:00pm
    - Paulus
      
      Drysdale from Cambridge, will be a one term Mayor but will do quite some damage on the way out !
      
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      April 29, 2025 3:56pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Half-way down this page is a list of the 42 local councils that are having a poll on Maori Wards
    
    https://www.votelocal.co.nz/maori-wards-and-constituencies/
    
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    April 29, 2025 10:23am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      By law they all have to, they may not have set this up for the elections yet
      
      6 2
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      April 29, 2025 10:45am
      - Ghost
        
        No that’s not the law. The law is basically that councils can only hold Māori wards if they first poll their voters. Councils who do not wish to have Māori wards do not have to poll their voters. Councils who have already polled their voters do not have to have another referendum. So the only councils who are and have to by law hold a referendum are those who want to have Māori wards.
        
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        April 29, 2025 12:12pm
    - RoboRob
      
      Can anyone explain why the Caterbury regional council is excluded from having a poll?
      
      The doc lists it as ‘Council that has Māori representation by appointment of Māori to Council. It will not have an electoral contest or a poll for its Māori constituency’
      
      I assume there was some treaty deal with local iwi?
      
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      April 29, 2025 11:06am
      - Ghost
        
        https://www.ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/2023/council-opts-not-to-include-maori-constituency/
        
        6 0
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        April 29, 2025 12:15pm
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        Thanks for that. My reading is that the council has decided not to have a Maori seat (by vote on the Maori role) but will continue to have direct Ngai Tahu postions (the worst opntion, unelected members).
        
        ‘We have previously considered the option of a Māori constituency and felt the best, most appropriate representation was direct representation by mana whenua‘
        
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        April 29, 2025 1:48pm
      - Ghost
        
        We can off course thank the great Dame Ardern
        
        https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/local/2021/0091/latest/whole.html#LMS578055
        
        Personally I think it is time some of us south of Christchurch pull out of ECAN
        
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        April 29, 2025 1:54pm
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        Well done. So the appropraite solution would be for National to urgently change the legislation.
        
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        April 29, 2025 3:06pm
- septic skeptic
  
  In NZ a racist is someone who believes in equal rights for all people regardless of their race.
  
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  April 29, 2025 10:38am
  - RoboRob
    
    The moden ‘progressive’ way is to judge people based on skin colour and sex.
    
    13 0
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    April 29, 2025 11:07am
    - sirknz
      
      You forgot the preference for the type of gentals their partner has.
      
      9 0
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      April 29, 2025 12:27pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        How gentle do they have to be ? 😆
        
        9 1
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        April 29, 2025 1:06pm
- NothingLeft
  
  He’s right, Maori wards are racist.
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:11pm
- AitchW
  
  TW, what he meant to say was ” Oh, that’s democratic.”
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:25pm
Sparrow

How things have changed and not for the better. Bought our first family home in 1973 the average house cost 2.3 times the average salary. Today its a staggering 11 times. In the meantime the infrastructure has gone to shit, medical care and education had gone backwards. This has been under both National and Labour governments. What has caused this sad story ?
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April 29, 2025 10:05am
- MCōs
  
  Infrastructure has gone to shit because back in the good old days councils in our older cities didn’t want to push up rates by spending big bucks on maintenance
  Now they have to spend mega bucks on maintenance.
  Down our street, which is 1/2km long the water pipe including connections to maybe 80 houses is being replaced. According to the foreman it should have been done ten years ago
  Auckland loses up to 15% of its potable water to leaks
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:51am
  - cmm
    
    15% is actually very good. The world average is way higher than that.
    
    8 2
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    April 29, 2025 12:01pm
  - Eastlander
    
    Take this labour party talking point back to Reddit please. Underinvestment in water infrastructure is a recent phenomenon and stems directly from the LGA turning local government into a means of advancing every policy goal conceivable and earlier reforms which prioritised ‘managers’ over technical experts.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:05pm
  - Eastlander
    
    Following up on that, local authorities had detailed asset management plans concerning the strategic replacement of pipes as they reached the end of their lives. These were discarded by twenty-first century council staff who thought they knew better, and now things are done according to kneejerk reactions with priority depending on who bleats the loudest in committee meetings.
    
    Labourite advocates for the continuation of waste and incompetence continue to peddle this bullshit narrative that rates were kept ‘artificially low’ for decades. It’s an unforgivable libel against the much more capable and diligent people who once worked in New Zealand territorial authorities. It’s all the more insulting because it comes from people like Tory Whanau who would once have been deservedly classified as feeble-minded.
    
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    April 29, 2025 6:11pm
- NothingLeft
  
  A lot more money being spent on health, pensions, dpb etc. Also chronic safety-ism and other ever increasing legislated regulatory burdens that have destroyed productivity of infrastructure build and maintenance making them unaffordable.
  
  Probably 30-50% of the cost of building a house these days is to appease regulations and various central and local govt imposts that don’t usefully improve the house or make things ‘safer’ in an economically justifiable way.
  
  A small example; 20 years ago builders would have a 44 gallon drum on site and steadily burn waste during build. Now you are required to get a skip and landfill it at an added cost of $5-10k.
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:17pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    30 years ago, you would dig a deep hole, and mount long drop dunny over it. Now you have to hire a port-a-loo. (except out in the country 🙂 )
    
    9 3
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    April 29, 2025 1:09pm
  - rouppe
    
    Now you are required to get a skip and landfill it at an added cost of $5-10k.
    
    For which you need to pay for a permit from the council.
    A neighbour is getting part of his house reclad, reroofed etc. A skip was put on the grass berm for scrap. Not on the road, not on the footpath.
    
    One of the other neighbours complained to the council, who came up and said a permit would be required. This other neighbour, a right “Tuesday”, has also made veiled threats to my ex about a shared fence that was built on the boundary, and displaced boundary pegs. Which would apply to most suburban properties I suspect.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:42pm
    - AitchW
      
      I’d have thought that pegs would be largely vanishing now. We have a 1.5Ha property which is a quite irregular shape. Only 2 pegs, everything is shot off them.
      
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      April 29, 2025 2:45pm
      - rouppe
        
        They are. I think the end game of the threat is to extract money. What else, since he participated in the fence build, and no land was cribbed either way.
        
        I’ve contacted LINZ and they said that while technically it is an offence, they have no interest in pursuing such things, and the [redacted] would have to make a private prosecution. Which is expensive.
        
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        April 29, 2025 4:51pm
    - MCōs
      
      The grass berm is part of the foot path usually
      Apart from that I suspect there’s more to that story like tradies blocking the footpath and pissing people off
      
      4 1
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      April 29, 2025 4:38pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Boomers free riding then pulling up the ladder and more recently mass low value immigration.
  
  3 7
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  April 29, 2025 2:19pm
  - Quail
    
    Kcc,
    You touched on it < 3 million citizens, now 5.5 million.
    All about immigration to keep up the GDP figures meaning huge stress on infrastructure and ( free) housing but very little real productivity increases.
    Export volumes declining
    NZ borders should be easy to manage but apparently not.
    
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    April 29, 2025 3:30pm
- artemisia
  
  Yet the number of first home buyers is increasing. I compared the first quarter of 2015 and same for 2025 – number up 50%. Reserve Bank data.
  
  Maybe those FHBs have discovered they can be DINKs, Have Kiwisaver and buy less than average price. For now.
  
  Or whinge.
  
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  April 29, 2025 3:25pm
- Paulus
  
  Greed, mainly by the Banks !
  
  4 1
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  April 29, 2025 3:57pm
lifesgood

What has happened to Pierre Poliviere? I thought he’d be a shoe in as PM of Canada after that appalling Trudeau. You never here Poliviere’s name mentioned. What’s wrong with the Canadians, are they all mad? PP’s interview in an orchard while eating an apple is a must see. (find it on youtube) He completely demolished a dumb lefty.
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April 29, 2025 10:27am
- NothingLeft
  
  Trump pissed off Canadian voters and they associate right with Trump.
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:20pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, it would be good if the Donald engaged his brain before he opened his mouth. Especially when talking geopolitics.
    
    7 7
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    April 29, 2025 12:40pm
    - Northshoredoc
      
      Engage brain before opening mouth you say ?
      
      Not something one could ever accuse Trump of doing.
      
      6 9
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      April 29, 2025 2:08pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    And Carney looks like the right person to lead Canada’s and perhaps even the world’s response
    
    https://www.wallawallademocrats.com/other-voices/carneys-checkmates
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:38pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  1) Trudeau did a Jacinda
  2)Trump
  
  8 3
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  April 29, 2025 1:16pm
  - lifesgood
    
    Are a majority of Canadians half witted? Serious question, or as previous poster said are they suffering from battered wife syndrome? Fancy voting for more of the same, mind you looks like Oz will do the same thing.
    
    6 2
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    April 29, 2025 6:22pm
    - keepcalmcarryon
      
      Squishy Centre voters. All countries gottem.
      Our embarrassment was Jacindas storming home in the Covid election.
      Most peoples emotion will beat logic under pressure.
      
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      April 29, 2025 10:42pm
Pope Punctilious II

Nature magazine (by most metrics the world’s top science journal), wants a “more honest, scientific approach to DEI”.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01240-7
A more honest, scientific approach to something as dishonest and unscientific as DEI?
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April 29, 2025 10:27am
- RoboRob
  
  A prime example of ‘stupid smart people’
  
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  April 29, 2025 11:10am
- NothingLeft
  
  Fully captured by far left. Like ‘Scientific’ American.
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:21pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Those people believe deep down that qualified minority people are missing out on jobs etc because of their minority status and thus believe that DEI is simply making things how it should be (i.e. most qualified people getting the job).
  
  The fact that there is zero evidence to back this up (and plenty showing qualified people missing out due to DEI) results in them believing that the approach to DEI must be dishonest and unscientific because they are unwilling to question their own beliefs. And yes, that does make them terrible scientists..
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:04pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    DEI kills.
    
    https://the-american-catholic.com/2025/04/28/dei-kills/
    
    This in regards to the helicopter colliding with the airline in Washington.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:13pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      I wonder if th downtickers even opened the link?
      
      5 2
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      April 29, 2025 3:47pm
Swifty

A good interview of Sir Keith Park from 1961:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vXDf6Cw4l0o&pp=ygUYc2lyIGtlaXRoIHBhcmsgaW50ZXJ2aWV3

Worthwhile.
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April 29, 2025 11:17am
- David Garrett
  
  Swifty: Yes…im glad i listened right to the end, when he referred the shameful machinations by Leigh-Mallory and his toady Bader.
  
  Sir Charles Portal, head of the Air Ministry, said of Park: ” If any one man won the Battle of Britain he did”
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:17pm
  - Lance
    
    I do love “Lord HardThrashers” demolition of Mallory and Bader on his YouTube videos around the Battle of Britain. Also his praise of Park and Dowding.
    
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    April 29, 2025 1:16pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Yeah, I’m a fan of his videos too.
      
      1 0
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      April 29, 2025 6:57pm
  - Mike
    
    Tedder.
    
    2 1
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    April 29, 2025 3:42pm
- mandk
  
  Thank you, Swifty.
  
  People tend to think of Rutherford and Hilary as being the greatest New Zealanders but, in my opinion, Park was the greatest of them all – primus inter pares.
  
  Another great NZer, often overlooked, was Archibald McIndoe. He was a pioneer in plastic surgery, especially for burns victims, and he contributed magnificently to the good of mankind.
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:50pm
sungsamning

https://www.westernjournal.com/chess-not-checkers-white-house-tricks-msnbc-finally-covering-violent-illegal-aliens/
‘Chess, Not Checkers’: White House Tricks MSNBC Into ‘Finally’ Covering ‘Violent Illegal Aliens’.
MSNBC acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s White House press team made a strategic move by placing posters of illegal immigrants it has arrested, along with additional, often violent crimes they have committed, where the media cannot ignore them.

“Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire reported Monday, “The White House has put up about 100 posters of what they say are unauthorized immigrants who’ve been arrested for violent crimes. You can see them there. They’ve put them up on the driveway of the White House,” leading to the West Wing.

“But what’s particularly noteworthy about this location is it is right directly behind the positions where TV correspondents do their hits from the White House lawn,” he added.
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April 29, 2025 11:35am
- Conservatarian
  
  Please refer to that television network by its proper name – MSNBC13.
  
  7 5
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  April 29, 2025 12:09pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Its MSDNC as far as I’m concerned. They just shill for the MS13 huggers.
    
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    April 29, 2025 6:59pm
sungsamning

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/massive-anti-migration-protests-sweep-across-ireland-germany/
Massive Anti-Migration Protests Sweep Across Ireland, Germany, England, & Poland as Citizens Demand Control Over National Identity and Borders.
This weekend, a wave of anti-mass migration demonstrations erupted across Europe, with tens of thousands of people gathering in Ireland, England, Germany, and Poland to voice their frustrations with and opposition to the current migration policies imposed by Brussels and their globalist-led governments.

The demonstrations, fueled by growing concerns over national security, ever-increasing strained public services, and the erosion of cultural identities and their formerly high-trust societies, showcased the rising discontent in local communities, particularly in working-class and rural areas. [I didn’t see it on our ‘one source of truth’. So, it must be fake news. //]
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April 29, 2025 11:35am
- mandk
  
  By cracking down hard on illegal immigration, Poland seems to have got it right, but it looks like the horse has already bolted in those other countries.
  
  The worst thing about illegal immigration is that most of the migrants are eventually settled and will be able to bring their families in due course.
  
  How long before the UK becomes a Muslim country?
  
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  April 29, 2025 12:03pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    UK is nearing economic crisis point. They’re past the peak in Laffer Curve – higher taxes are producing lower revenue. Rich and entrepreneurial are fleeing, businesses are shrinking or shuttering. Record deficits of 5% of GDP even though it supposedly ‘good times’, and they are going up annually.
    
    UK energy prices are ridiculously high (over NZD $0.60 per kWh) even though our wages are about the same, it’s killing business and industry.
    
    When economy sours people lose their generous altruistic natures. UK politics will inevitably get very hard nosed with regard to parasites.
    
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    April 29, 2025 4:34pm
    - ISeeRed
      
      The UK appears to be a dystopian pseudo-police state and soon-to-be failed welfare state. Sad. Didn’t have to be that way.
      
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      April 30, 2025 10:05am
- Jack5
  
  New Zealand’s isolation so far has protected us from invading “boat people,” but legal immigration under the Ardern-Chipkins government, proportionately the biggest inflow in the developed world, put a big burden on national infrastructure, especially the health system.
  
  The health system will be an issue at the next general election. Today we are 51.4 per cent through the current Parliamentary term (using the last possible date for the next election).
  
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  April 29, 2025 2:05pm
Ghost

Canada’s preliminary election results

https://enr.elections.ca/National.aspx?lang=e
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April 29, 2025 12:18pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Good to see Parti Rhinocéros Party managed to turn out some dedicated supporters.
  
  2 0
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  April 29, 2025 12:32pm
- Don Beckett
  
  Very preliminary – 2% of voters, & 54%of polling places.
  
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  April 29, 2025 1:21pm
- john1234
  
  Astonishing. Canadians have Battered Wife Syndrome – they keep coming back for more abuse.
  
  13 4
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  April 29, 2025 2:58pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    looking at the map; definitely a victory for those that get their income from big govt. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/federal/2025/results/#/
    
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    April 29, 2025 6:33pm
- Ghost
  
  Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won Canada’s federal election, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fuelled by US President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war.
  
  Article
  
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  April 29, 2025 3:39pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    With friends like Trump, who needs enemies?
    
    4 8
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    April 29, 2025 3:48pm
- surfing
  
  Expected , given Trump is such an abhorrent person.
  
  Trump is the jacinda ardern of the USA. Unless he decides to take a 3rd term, republicans can wave goodbye to power for a long time.
  
  6 8
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  April 29, 2025 4:44pm
- sungsamning
  
  I wonder how long before Alberta leaves?
  
  3 3
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  April 29, 2025 7:01pm
rouppe

Would you not have to be the biggest moron to “compete” in this?

Runit Championship League
8 1
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April 29, 2025 1:34pm
- H. Upmann
  
  The perfect Darwin idiot game except we all end up paying for it through medical cost and long term ACC.
  
  4 1
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  April 29, 2025 3:07pm
David Garrett

DPF must be busy today…2.30 and nothing but GD…Still, we r fortunate he bothers to give us a forum and things to debate

[Mod – there is a post set for 10pm tonight and it appears one waiting]
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April 29, 2025 2:30pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  I thought the “Whanau is Out” post last night was good. Broke the news before anyone else.
  
  12 0
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  April 29, 2025 3:33pm
  - surfing
    
    Newstalk nz claiming they were first?
    
    3 1
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    April 29, 2025 4:45pm
NothingLeft

Given horrendous economic troubles in China what are the Odds that Xi Jinping is still premier at end of the year?
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April 29, 2025 4:11pm
Tom Barker

“You’re going to see so much winning,” Trump promised his supporters. But it turns out he really meant it for social democrats in Canada.
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April 29, 2025 4:36pm
- Conservatarian
  
  “Social democrats” in Canada. LOL. Maybe that describes Bill Clinton or Tony Blair, but not the WEF puppet regime in Ottawa
  
  They’re “Progressives” (aka technocratic social justice state interventionists).
  
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  April 30, 2025 3:57pm
Ghost

I don’t consider this part of the councils job. I’d actually prefer councils are told to get back to their core responsibilities.

David Seymour’s calling on mayors to help in reducing school truancies.

The Associate Education Minister’s asking mayors to use the Government’s new daily school attendance dashboard to understand how regions compare to each other.

Porirua Mayor Anita Baker says Seymour’s plea was vague.

“So if he wants to play us a formal role, I think he needs to look at funding us.”

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April 29, 2025 5:33pm
Ghost

Whooops

A US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet has been “lost” at sea after it fell overboard from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier while it was being towed on board, the Navy said in a statement.

A US official said that initial reports from the scene indicated that the Truman made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, which contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard.

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April 29, 2025 5:36pm
- AitchW
  
  The article makes reference to ‘repeated attacks’ by Houthis. Surely they can trace the source of the attack and turn the sand to glass?
  
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  April 29, 2025 5:54pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360670435/kim-dotcom-has-moved-dunedin-mansion-denies-purchasing-property
Why is this fat prick still in the country ?
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April 29, 2025 6:40pm

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