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May 6, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 06 May 2025

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General Debate

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peterwn

Trump has gone completely off his rocker this time asking officials to re-open Alcatraz Prison. He seems to want to make it a ‘showcase’ for the very worst criminals (could one imagine Martha Stewart being sent there when she sold shares on the basis of inside information). Anyway is is very unlikely that the people of the Bay would support it any more than the people in Wellington would support a supermax prison being established on Somes Island. Fortunately it would take more than four years for the Prisons Bureau to do initial planning, obtain their equivalent of resource consents, lift historic designations etc.
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May 6, 2025 8:01am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  Great idea.
  
  You realise that prison is the best place for criminals to protect law abiding citizens aye?
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:03am
  - rangitoto
    
    Alcatraz is a silly idea for a prison. It’s too expensive to maintain. Cost per prisoner would be much higher than any of the modern prisons.
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:46am
    - Keith White
      
      It’s only expensive if you feather-bed the criminals. Cost per criminal if they get 3 basic meals and a potty and a cot and a jug and basin to wash; and they get no TV and no internet and no cellphone service and most sensible of all – *no* gym equipment (which they only use to bulk up to intimidate and bully and injure and kill when they get out quickly after all their sentencing discounts) would be cheap.
      
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      May 6, 2025 11:17am
      - imalwaysright
        
        …and no raincoats, and no paper-mâché classes.
        
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        May 6, 2025 11:37am
      - Hard Cheese
        
        Alcatraz is a crumbling ruin that needs a lot of money to be brought up to scratch. On top of that you have the operational costs of transporting food, staff, fuel and even sewerage to and from the island. Like most things Trump comes up with it’s a dumb idea, but if he wants to waste the money he can go right ahead.
        
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        May 6, 2025 12:30pm
    - kiwimike
      
      Killers, multipole rapists, kindy fiddlers, those over 3x convictions and the really worst case like lying MOH & Politicians could get culled.
      
      Never do it again.
      
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      May 6, 2025 11:53am
  - Bevan
    
    It might surprise you Anthony, but did you know that new Prisons can be built! And potentially, they may be better and cheaper than refurbishing something built during the civil war…
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:07am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Why shouldn’t San Francisco have a Supermax prison? Shouldn’t Californian families have ready access for prisoner visits?
  
  These places don’t just have to be in Texas.
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:03am
  - peterwn
    
    The ultimate federal supermax prison is in Colorado.
    
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    May 6, 2025 9:54am
  - G152
    
    Trump is preparing his move into a famous prison and obscurity after the courtcase
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:05am
    - Hard Cheese
      
      Plenty of room for his cult members to join him too
      
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      May 6, 2025 10:56am
  - Keith White
    
    Why should the really bad murderers and rapists and grievous bodily harm types get any family visits at all? Their victims are lost to *their* families either entirely, or have to live with their damaged loved ones every day for the rest of their usually shortened lives.
    
    Forget visits. Leave them in their calls 23 hours a day to meditate upon their sins. Or not.
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:20am
- Scott
  
  Umm why is it a bad idea? Apparently they need more prison space to house illegal alien criminals which the courts won’t allow them to deport.
  
  It’s a good idea and deeply symbolic of the notion that the worst criminals need to be dealt with in a punitive way that discourages others from going down the same path.
  
  I suspect the American public will be behind president Trump on this issue. As they are behind him on almost everything.
  Best president in our lifetime. By a lot. Winning bigly. 😎
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:15am
  - rangitoto
    
    It’s a fairly small prison and would be expensive to maintain. Inconvenient for staff as well.
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:48am
    - MCōs
      
      Maximum number of inmates was 320, which is half the capacity of Paremoremo, our equivalent for extreme ratbags.
      
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      May 6, 2025 1:24pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Honestly, who cares what the courts think? Get them all out as quickly as possible, then deal with it later. Thats what needs to be done. Once they’re out, they aren’t coming back (although they still need a gigantic wall like Israel has). Let the courts consider their cases while they’re already sitting in Guatemala. Playing by “the rules” is a recipe for never getting anything important done.
    
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    May 6, 2025 1:56pm
- Mod88
  
  His “Trolling” is certainly triggering a lot of people 😁
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:15am
  - Dougal10
    
    And he is trolling about a prison in one of the wokest cities in the world
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:45am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Good place to send the crime families of Clinton and Biden stock
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:22am
  - rangitoto
    
    Who will go there when the Epstein files get released if ever? Suspect both sides of the house are implicated.
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:50am
    - Paulus
      
      Haven’t the paid US Judges said that Epstein’s Papers, prior to his hanging, will never be released, and Hilary agrees.
      The black book and papers are held offshore in case
      Ghislaine Maxwell is found hanged too, at which time no matter what, they may well be released.
      I see that one of the many young courtesans has committed suicide too, in Australia.
      Understand she wanted more money too.
      Not enough money though, as the US Lawyers take the cream of any settlement.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:42pm
- David Garrett
  
  Peter: IMO Trump goes “off his rocker” at least once a week. What happened to his “plan” to relocate all the people in Gaza and make it the riviera of the middle east?
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:33am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The war has to finish first.
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:42am
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      It’s hardly a “war” by any accepted definition is it? A war usually involves reciprocity and some semblance of parity between the combatants.
      
      What it is is an advanced state military, enabled and underwritten by the world’s biggest military power, bombing the shit out of civilians and claiming all the victims are terrorists after the fact.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:07pm
    - Paulus
      
      Iran will not allow the War to cease.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:43pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Getting closer
    ‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet voted to scale up the offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza to the point of seizing the entire enclave and holding its territories, an Israeli official said on Monday …’
    https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/05/05/israel-to-gazans-return-the-hostages-or-else-n3802441
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:44am
    - David Garrett
      
      All on: Israel occupying Gaza is a very long way from Trumps idiotic “plan”..
      
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      May 6, 2025 8:59am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Its a good start though
        
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        May 6, 2025 9:22am
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      Israel has always been the aggressor in their decades-long campaign to swallow up as much illegally annexed territory as possible. This is completely at odds with their claims to innocent victimhood. What the “survival of Israel” actually entails is not the mere existence of a Jewish ethostate, but wiping out all opposition to their expansionist plans for a Greater Israel with all potential opponents negated.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:12pm
  - rouppe
    
    That wasn’t a “plan”.
    
    It was flying a kite.
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:47am
    - Hard Cheese
      
      It’s remarkable how many of Trump’s kites resemble lead balloons.
      
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      May 6, 2025 1:56pm
- peterwn
  
  So presumably the four down-tickers (so far) think it is a good idea to establish a supermax prison an island where it is going to cost a fortune to build and run (for example with Alcatraz all the water needed for construction and operation had to be shipped to the island). Supermax prisons do not need to be on an island to make them secure.
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:43am
  - David Garrett
    
    Peter: I didn’t know that about the water supply…surely they could construct a pipeline under the Bay?
    
    It’s still a typically stupid Trump brain fart which is never going to happen.
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:50am
    - G152
      
      Water mains are one of those inconvenient facts as will be the construction of staff accommodation blocks.
      There is a reason that that prison was shut down
      
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      May 6, 2025 10:09am
      - Keith White
        
        Potable water from seawater. It’s simple desalination science. For example: the Carlsbad Desalination Plant on the California coast provides 50 million gallons of fresh water a day to San Diego. One doubts the crims on Alcatraz would need more than a mere fraction of that capacity.
        
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        May 6, 2025 11:23am
    - OlderChas
      
      An earthquake-proof pipeline maybe DG?
      
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      May 7, 2025 7:57am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I think the point is who cares, it’s their country, and they want the worst criminals off the grid, he doesn’t get to tell us how we have weak soft wishy washy sentences, so why should he not be able to reopen the rock? , the only reason it closed was because it needed huge work, if he spends the money then it will be fine to house the worst scum in US society.
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:51am
    - Don Beckett
      
      With all the billions that DOGE are saving, the cost to rebuild will be a drop in the bucket.
      
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      May 6, 2025 10:54am
      - Mike
        
        Make that ‘claimed savings’.
        
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        May 6, 2025 1:15pm
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Peter the downtickers are distraught that you had the temerity to raise questions about their hero.
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:54am
    - Keith White
      
      Another sad case of insightless projection.
      
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      May 6, 2025 11:25am
  - Paulus
    
    Alcatraz might do btter made into a five star Hotel !
    Probably cheaper.
    
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    May 6, 2025 9:11am
    - peterwn
      
      Alcatraz Hilton? Courtesy boat hourly from Fishermans Wharf.
      
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      May 6, 2025 9:18am
      - alwyn.a
        
        “Hilton”?
        Of course not. It will be the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
        With any luck Trump will be a resident there.
        
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        May 6, 2025 2:19pm
      - david
        
        Trump Resort ? Nah – not enough room for a golf course.
        
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        May 6, 2025 3:43pm
    - Northshoredoc
      
      It’s doing superbly as a tourist attraction.
      
      Well worth a trip when you’re in San Francisco.
      
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      May 6, 2025 9:54am
      - rangitoto
        
        Yep it’s an interesting bit of history.
        
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        May 6, 2025 10:52am
  - nova
    
    Going through with the re-opening of Alcatraz is a terrible idea. But announcing it is genius. It puts the focus onto law and order, makes Trump seem tough on criminals, and distracts from other things. And the message is amplified by all the elite telling everyone just how terrible the idea is.
    
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    May 6, 2025 3:15pm
- alex Masterley
  
  When I read this report I wondered if Mr Trump had never heard of USP Florence (ADMAX) in Colorado.
  It is said to be the most secure prison in the USA and houses some really nasty people.
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:51am
- john1234
  
  I assume this, like making Canada the 51st state, or militarily annexing Greenland, is a highly successful troll.
  Alcatraz prison buildings are all either crumbling or ruins and not feasible to restore to operation so would have to be razed and built up from the ground. It would be orders of magnitude cheaper to just build a prison from scratch in the wop-wops. Trump is a property developer. He knows this.
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:17am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Doesn’t matter. This is the Rahm Emmanuel/Obama Stray Voltage strategy at work.
  
  Keep them on the back foot and constantly reacting, while you get on and deliver your rea, agenda.
  
  The screams of rage and outrage are all part of the fun.
  
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  May 6, 2025 11:41am
- imalwaysright
  
  Apparently some US prisons use the inmates as cheap labour and make good money from them.
  Recently a crooked US judge was convicted for sending innocent youths to jail. He made about $4 million for his crookedness.
  
  All NZ prisoners should be forced to work for their keep.
  
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  May 6, 2025 12:02pm
  - [email protected]
    
    Involuntary servitude is illegal in the USA. Prisoners who work do so because they want to have something to do, learn skills and pocket some cash.
    
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    May 6, 2025 1:08pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      I know. That’s why I called them “cheap labour”.
      
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      May 6, 2025 1:33pm
- Interested Party
  
  He’s just throwing it out there as he does – those with TDS don’t understand this. People start discussing this, nah it’s not practical, but hey we have an old army base in the desert that could be used
  
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  May 6, 2025 12:53pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Some facts would be nice before you go nuts.
  
  Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening.
  
  “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” the president said. “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering.”
  
  So before you all go manic..
  The perspective is that Trump says lots of shit which is intended to focus some attention.
  
  London to a brick, not one US Cent will be spent on reopening Alcatraz as a maximum security prison.
  
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  May 6, 2025 3:07pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Looks like Israel is adopting a libensraum policy in respect of Gaza – or at least a population shift similar to what the Soviets did in Eastern Europe.

“The plan then is to move Gaza’s entire population to the south of the enclave”.

It’s Orwellian.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/560010/netanyahu-promises-to-move-gaza-s-population-after-israel-approves-plan-to-conquer-the-enclave
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May 6, 2025 8:01am
- Scott
  
  I agree with resettling Gaza. Maybe they’d be happier in a Muslim country that doesn’t border Israel?
  
  Secondly if you start a war and lose there’s consequences. Maybe you get displaced?
  
  It’s a nice bit of land with nice beaches apparently. It could be a nice place. Unfortunately the people chose Hamas and so we are where we are.
  
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  May 6, 2025 10:33am
  - Don Beckett
    
    It was a flourishing fertile area when Israel occupied it for 20 years? after 1972 Yom Kippur war. When it was handed back to the “Palestinians” it had new housing , gardens & self sufficient in food.
    But because it was built by the JEWS, they wrecked everything & turned it into the shithole it was, even before the bombing started.
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:59am
    - Debsta
      
      Sounds familiar…DOC huts anyone!
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:44pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  How foolish it was for Hamas to commit the atrocities they did, which gave Netanyahu a chance to push back as he’s always probably wanted to.
  
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  May 6, 2025 10:55am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “…which gave Netanyahu a chance to push back as he’s always probably wanted to.”
    
    Lucky for Netanyahu, eh?
    
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    May 6, 2025 2:16pm
- MCōs
  
  I was looking through some old family photos and other stuff from years ago yesterday and came across some transcripts of letters my father wrote to his mother in 1941 while he was with the army in North Africa
  He took some leave and went with some of his mates to visit the Holy Land including Tel Aviv, which he said was in Palestine.
  He wrote about meeting Jewish refugees from Europe.
  
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  May 6, 2025 1:44pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    The idea of moving to the edge of the middle of nowhere to live among a vast and well-established non-Jewish majority who had lived in the region for thousands of years was quite understandably not popular for most European Jews. This obviously was a problem for the Zionist project, which is why they were quite happy to see a regime with antisemitic policies come to power in Germany. Naturally, there was common cause because the Nazis wanted the Jews out of Germany, and so did the Zionists in nascent Israel. Accordingly, the Nazis and the Zionists entered into the pre-war Haavarra agreement to facilitate Jewish migration to Palestine and investment in proto-Israel, an agreement that has largely been memory-holed since the war for obvious reasons.
    
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    May 6, 2025 6:24pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

The Kāhui Ako / Communities of Learning program is to be axed. Good. Most of its $118m budget is spent on teachers sitting around talking to each other. The precipitous fall in school leaver accomplishment suggests it’s unsuccessful.

Unsurprisingly, teachers are moaning at the prospect of losing the nice little bump in salary the program provided.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/560019/leaked-documents-say-kahui-ako-school-programme-set-to-be-disestablished
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May 6, 2025 8:01am
Yvette

On “Raced based Super is a terrible idea”, 7am post, kiwiblog Host David Farrar says, “As there is no significant genetic link to dying early, giving NZ Super to anyone who has a fraction of Maori DNA would be a very bad policy. Why should David Seymour get NZ Super at 60 because of his ancestry?”

I addition there is Kiri Allan, with a similar prosperity, but publicised she had, as a Maori wahine, only 13.8 percent chance of surviving cancer, but does survive to date, although the negativity of her emotional life is more likely to kill her in a vehicle crash.

Then as mentioned in GD yesterday, a commenter pointed out Willie Jackson in a DNA examination highlighted in a television “documentary” revealed the mixture of ancestors he has, with Maori being a minority – so no significant genetic link to dying early there, nor his life style in terms of physiological comfort being a factor, so the imminent danger of early death is his chosen choices of life style and the choice of being a politician, and the mind-set of claiming to be Maori, although his ancestor examination indicates he isn’t so Maori physiologically.

And while there is a plethora of other reasons that “Raced based Super is a terrible idea”, two that should exclude it before it is even thought of, is the lack of research on why Maori may die earlier than “Pakeha”, said to be seven years, and the inability to define “who is a Maori“. And on top of that there is the racism in comparing Maori to “Pakeha” rather than “Asians”, who outlive “Pakeha” by another seven years.
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May 6, 2025 8:05am
Poppax8

But it would be a more realistic tourist attraction – a working prison!
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May 6, 2025 8:08am
- peterwn
  
  I do not know of any working prison let alone a supermax prison that offers guided tours for tourists. Some lunatic asylums such as Bedlam in London were tourist attractions but that idea went out of fashion a few centuries ago.
  
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  May 6, 2025 10:02am
Scott

I made a mistake last night by having the TV going on TV1 when the news came on and the first story, the leading story was Erica Stanford used her private Gmail account for govt business! That was the leading scoop and deeply alarming that the minister of education would use a Gmail account, for govt business, oh the horror!!

Two things from me. First is it really a big deal? Erica Stanford is doing great, the kids have to put away their phones and learn something, like reading, writing and maths. Also the new education portal means parents can see what their kids are learning and be more involved in their child’s education.

Second where was the outrage with anything Jacinda did? No more oil and gas exploration. The media was fine with that.
Stay home because of one covid case in all of NZ. All good jacinda.
You can’t buy a coffee, have a job, even take out a library book unless you have two shots of the jab.
All good jacinda!
Where was the NZ media then?

I see Trump is taking away federal funding from PBS and NPR.
The government here should do the same. Why fund TVNZ when they hate everything you do and excuses everything the opposition does?
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May 6, 2025 8:11am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Luxon was quickly able to point yesterday that Labours minsters did exactly the same when trying to print something off when away from the office or parliament, and the kicker was he stated Hipkins did exactly the same thing while PM, yet the arrogant weak soft woke Hipkins was able to freely call for her head, and part 2 is on tonight, the outrage at One Views texting Hosking, and on comments on social media was quite telling, they will take a further hit over this.
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:19am
  - Clyde
    
    The big question to be asked here is about the integrity of TVNZ News. Put simply, TVNZ cannot be trusted to deliver impartial news and that is clear to any neutral observer. Luxon needs to address this very simply by replacing the Boards of RNZ and TVNZ and require any vestige of political activity to be quashed. People like Maiki (any relation Mike?) Sherman should be given the DCM asap. But how about the Editor in Chief? What right does he think he has to be the comms dept of the Marxist left?
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:34am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I am not sure he can interfere with a SOE like that, imagine the hells if Labour did this, it’s the commie way remember
      
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      May 6, 2025 12:42pm
- Tricati
  
  I haven’t heard how Maiki Sherman got copies of the correspondence sent from Stanfords’s Parliamentary email system to her Gmail account – Maybe that’s the bigger question. If someone knows, would be keen to hear.
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:57am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    OIA, the government knew this was coming as they trolled OIA in March, Luxon appeared to know all Labours ministers, can’t wait to watch Q Time today to see Hipkins look like the goose he is, I think he is 7/8s cooked
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:09am
    - Scott
      
      G the giant – thanks for the info that Hipkins did exactly the same thing.
      I guess that’s where the media is at. If National does it then it’s terrible. If Labour does it then it’s not even reported.
      
      I’d be interested to know the percentage of negative coverage that TVNZ gives to this govt? Most of their reporting is critical.
      When Jacinda was PM I don’t remember much critical reporting at all? She was just awesome according to the good folks at TVNZ. 🤔
      
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      May 6, 2025 10:27am
      - Jack5
        
        Apart from not being end-to-end encrypted, the main grizzle about Google is that it uses patterns of its free email traffic for its own business purposes.
        
        The guy in the link below says below that only if Google’s servers were somehow compromised, could your Gmail data be exposed. The author is from Proton, a Swiss end-to-end encrypted email service.
        
        When you have a Centre-Right Education Minister dealing with mainly-Left teachers is the problem secure emails, or is it recipients leaking messages? Or even staff snooping on the recipient’s email?
        
        Proton person talking about Gmail:
        
        https://proton.me/blog/is-gmail-secure
        
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        May 6, 2025 11:46am
      - imalwaysright
        
        S.
        Didn’t Jacinda lie by omission when she withheld the fact she was pregnant before the election ?
        Not only did the press ignore the fraud, they instead deified her for it.
        
        Immaculate deception.
        
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        May 6, 2025 12:10pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yes, when the questioned Luxon on the podium yesterday, he clearly stated that Labours ministers had to do the same, then said Hipkins had done exactly the same as PM, now the weasel Hipkins is suggesting because he had complained about this in 2018 somehow that was an excuse for him but not for her.
        
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        May 6, 2025 12:44pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    normally its some little scrote in IT services leaking on behalf of Labour or the Greens
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:45am
    - Paulus
      
      Still standard practice of Paid Employees leaking from current Ministers, to the so called media and Hipkins.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:50pm
- peterwn
  
  There is a general concern that if employees and executives (and this would include Ministers and probably other MP’s) use private emails for Government or employer’s business, then the emails would not be discoverable where they could be subject to ‘discovery’. In the case of Government business such emails would not be accessible for the purposes of OIA request.
  Why it would be the number 1 item on TV news goodness knows, but then news staff want to kick non left wing Ministers etc in the guts at every possible opportunity.
  
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  May 6, 2025 10:29am
  - MCōs
    
    What other type of Ministers are there right now?
    Apart from that using a personal gmail account for any sort of parliamentary correspondence sounds like amateur hour to me.
    Didn’t Hillary get hauled over the coals for something of the sort.
    I was once accidentally sent just such an email from a well known NZ personality by mistake that I most certainly wasn’t supposed to receive. One would hope official accounts have safeguards against that sort thing. Maybe not
    
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    May 6, 2025 2:01pm
    - Jack5
      
      Cossie’s …I was once accidentally sent just such an email from a well known NZ personality by mistake that I most certainly wasn’t supposed to receive ,,,,
      
      That would have been a human accidental error (or purposeful direction) by the sender or intended recipient.
      Are you sure someone didn’t forward it to you?
      
      Even if you have an encrypted private Proton account (free or abourt $NZ8 a month) it will go to the wrong person if you address it wrongly.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:11pm
- R
  
  Why fund…….beccause defunding would increase the number of unemployed communications graduates. They would have to retain as ‘real world journalists’ before becoming employable.
  
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  May 6, 2025 11:29am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  It was also last year, when the printing system didnt work properly in the Beehive – so this is old news, and exactly what Labour had been doing, for probably the same reason.
  
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  May 6, 2025 11:44am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I think in her case it was worse, she could not print stuff if she was out of town, if a principle asked for some info, then she had no other option to do this, as I said before I think ministers email accounts can’t be sourced from outside a government computer, I could be wrong with that.
    
    Perhaps someone in the know could elaborate if they can source their ministerial emails from a foreign computer
    
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    May 6, 2025 12:50pm
    - Paulus
      
      Did she not ave to use a hotel printer as one not otherwise available.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:52pm
- PurplePen
  
  Agree entirely this is hardly any sort of top news story. But surely in 21st century you can access your parliament email account remotely either via a phone app or via a website or specific software Parliamentary Services will have installed on your PC or laptop at home. So why he need to use Gmail at all to send yourself something to print out at home. Unless such tech isn’t yet available from Parliamentary Services.
  
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  May 6, 2025 12:31pm
  - Ghost
    
    It appears this is more than just printing and that she was sending offical emails out from her as a minister in her gmail account
    
    Article
    
    The emails showed Stanford putting her MP business signature on emails from her Gmail while communicating with her staff, school principals and various organisations.
    
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    May 6, 2025 12:38pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The emails were replying from constituents’ questions, hardly the same as giving ministerial info
      
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      May 6, 2025 12:51pm
      - Ghost
        
        You don’t reply as a minister from your personal account, but you won’t hold anyone in this govt to account will you g.
        
        1 1
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        May 6, 2025 2:58pm
    - Jack5
      
      A further point: If you want to send absolutely secure emails, that is encrypted emails, both sender and receiver will need to have email systems with the same encryption system, e.g. be PGP based.
      
      This encryption for those a Minister or MP interacts with would be vast over-kill.
      
      Why don’t the Leftist media spell out what type of security they think should be required of Ministers and those they interact with — schools or whatever? And it must be compatible with what schools have or can afford.
      
      To me this complaint about the Minister’s email is one more attempt to divert attention from the NZ education system’s failing and woke education standards.
      
      School lunches, messages by Gmail, Maori culture … Let’s get back on track: low standards of basic numeracy and literacy are the problem.
      
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      May 6, 2025 2:27pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Parliamentary, but not sure about ministerial
    
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    May 6, 2025 12:50pm
artemisia

Benefit sanctions numbers have greatly increased where work obligations are not met, but almost all of the sanctioned re-complied.

Not that a positive outcome would be obvious from the negative headline slant. MSD doesn’t know if benefit sanctions leading people into work, says aim is compliance

New numbers from MSD. The number of benefit sanctions for missed MSD appointments rose to 9042 in the March 2025 quarter – more than twice the 4356 in the same quarter last year. There were a total of 13,485 sanctions in the quarter this year, up 79.6 percent year-on-year. …”In 2024, 92.8 percent of sanctions were lifted after the client re-complied with their obligations and got back on track.

The final word from MSD – “People get jobs because they apply for them, and because they take steps to become ready for work”.

Sounds like a plan.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/560012/msd-doesn-t-know-if-benefit-sanctions-leading-people-into-work-says-aim-is-compliance
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May 6, 2025 8:13am
- peterwn
  
  So the opponents of benefit sanctions are saying that unless the Government can show conclusively that benefit sanctions actually get people into work, there should be no benefit sanctions. Seems the issue is no one has actually researched the matter. Probably prospective researchers are not interested in researching the matter unless the likely conclusion is that benefit sanctions do not work.
  
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  May 6, 2025 10:38am
  - artemisia
    
    So 92.8% of folk who can’t meet their work obligations suddenly can.
    
    Someone should tell Isaac Gunson, spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group about the 92.8%. He said “These are people doing their best in tough circumstances. They may not have access to childcare, a working phone, or may simply be confused by the system.” Maybe he meant the 7.2%.
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:58am
NK

People get so triggered by what Trump says and does (I.e. Pope image).

I don’t understand why. Just ignore him if you’re that triggered.

Most of what he says he doesn’t mean anyway. He just shoots from the hip, seeking attention. And a lot of it is an intentional distraction. For example, the tariff announcements were intentional distractions while the USA hoarded gold, in lieu of gold being a standard of currency again very shortly.
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May 6, 2025 8:16am
- Gravelroad
  
  Yes, it is very strange this fixation with Trump.
  I know a couple of women who hate him because he is apparently a “womaniser” and “looks funny”.
  But if you say that J.F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton were also allegedly serial “womanisers” – they say that was different and they didn’t “look funny”.
  Hard to keep up with that sort of thinking.
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:29am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Its strange, as soon as someone mentions Trump at the pub or in the smoko room then everyone is a Trump boot licker, the man is in their head in a way i have never seen before, i note reputable polls have his support stable and above 50% as opposed to the misleading polls last week that reported that only 32% of Republican voters were asked as opposed to 65% of Democrat supporters.
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:35am
  - R
    
    ….that sort of thinking! And we let these people vote for our govt representatives. Certainly explains the results.
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:32am
- David Garrett
  
  NK: Oh…please don’t use that silly word “triggered”…It is hard to ignore his ravings when he is the leader of the free world with nuclear codes in his possession wherever he goes.
  
  But that doesn’t mean I am “triggered” by him…just astounded that such a narcissistic clown is in such a position
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:37am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    And you were fine with a guy with dementia was with the nuclear codes for 4 years? you know as well as I do he cant just push the button ffs
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:43am
    - newview
      
      GFD. In Bidens case there would be a group in the background making the decisions. At least partly democratic.
      
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      May 6, 2025 9:51am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Thats why I state to DG that he knows as well as i do that Trump can’t simply push the button, these things work both ways surely.
        
        14 1
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        May 6, 2025 10:11am
      - sirknz
        
        Guy who laid out plans ahead of time and is enacting them is not good.
        
        Guy who was essentially a puppet has decisions made by unknown group of people is fine.
        
        What in the dystopian sci-fi novella is this?
        
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        May 6, 2025 10:15am
      - pdm
        
        newview – can you be sure Jill wasn’t running the cutter in her `self adopted role’ of Mrs President?
        
        The first psuedo female US President.
        
        12 2
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        May 6, 2025 10:34am
      - lifesgood
        
        Mrs Joe was leading him around as if he was a toddler. I think one of the cringiest things I’ve ever seen was when Jill went up to the mike at some rally or other and told Joe he had done really well, he had answered all the questions. She sounded like the proud mother of a five year old.
        
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        May 6, 2025 11:28am
      - Ghost
        
        That was the rally after the debate that tanked him
        
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        May 6, 2025 11:30am
  - Ross Bayer
    
    David, and the previous team of bribem and harris was so competent
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:44am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Yeah, it really makes you wonder why all those people in the US voted for him, eh.
    Perhaps they are all morons?
    
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    May 6, 2025 8:46am
    - [email protected]
      
      They voted to get rid of the Democrats.
      
      12 3
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      May 6, 2025 8:52am
    - David Garrett
      
      Gravel: Indeed…one of the wonders of our – or at least their time.
      
      9 9
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      May 6, 2025 8:52am
      - Zapper
        
        Or maybe you don’t understand their issues
        
        10 5
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        May 6, 2025 9:04am
    - MCōs
      
      I’ve see plenty of people on this forum complain the voters are morons when they elect someone they don’t like
      
      13 5
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      May 6, 2025 8:55am
      - David Garrett
        
        MCos: I’m sure you have read that remark attributed to Churchill: “the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”.
        
        12 7
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        May 6, 2025 9:02am
      - RoboRob
        
        True. However I think it goes a little bit deeper in the US. There is a worldwide view that a large portion of the US population are country bumpkins with no brain cells. This is even perpetuated in the US itself with Dems frequently referring to the ‘rust belt’ and ‘fly over country’. There aren’t many other countries we think of like that. It’s a kind of moral superiority that is unwarranted.
        
        People look at Trump and think, oh a bunch of hicks from the stix voted him in. They must be thick. I do think there is a large misinformed voter base in the US as both sides have talking heads that spew their propaganda but sitting in NZ we cant really understand the personal circumstances that cause people to vote a particular way.
        
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        May 6, 2025 9:14am
      - Debsta
        
        “I do think there is a large misinformed voter base in the US…” Not just the US Robo, its a huge base everywhere. And with ‘perception management’ being the political tool du jour, meaning the best spin merchant is rewarded, it will not end well.
        
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        May 6, 2025 3:04pm
      - MCōs
        
        Or vice versa in the case of Dutton
        Btw
        People complain about our attack dog media her. They’re like sausage dogs compared to the pit bulls in Oz
        
        1 1
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        May 6, 2025 4:00pm
    - Northshoredoc
      
      Around 40% of the population found both choices so odious they didn’t bother.
      
      7 5
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      May 6, 2025 8:57am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yet Trump increased his vote
        
        18 5
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        May 6, 2025 9:21am
    - Stu2
      
      Because he promised lower prices and inflation
      
      But then he added import taxes to all imports
      
      Pretty stupid voters not to pick up that tariffs and lower prices didn’t go hand in hand
      
      10 13
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      May 6, 2025 8:59am
    - Cassandra
      
      Gravel: the Opposition was even worse. I’m sure America can and will do better next time. Rubio or Vance v Newsome?
      
      11 2
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      May 6, 2025 9:12am
      - MCōs
        
        Three and a half years is a long way down the track
        Who knows what will happen when so many people don’t vote
        
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        May 6, 2025 4:09pm
  - Yvette
    
    David, of all your mentions of “triggered”, the most important matter may be that the nuclear codes in Trump’s possession wherever he goes, are not triggered.
    
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    May 6, 2025 9:10am
  - bennerg
    
    What I am amused by is that so many people do not understand Trump, or his unqiue methodology to support and build his policies with the American people.
    
    Firstly, the majority of the USA Press are hostile to him and his party. If he were to quietly “get on with the job” they would ignore him, and his profile would diminish. However, with statements such as the Alcatraz idea, he is talking to the American people, and the left wing press cannot ignore that. They are triggered, and just have to say how bad an idea it is – and in that way the name “Trump” gets in the headlines every day.
    
    The idea of usng Alcatraz, while having so many practical problems, is still an idea that resonates with people. It is the iconic place to put “bad people”, and so dealing with the mayhem in the USA, the idea gives the public a sense that Trump is looking out for them.
    
    Trump is never going to win over the extreme left, such as AOC etc, nor the embedded Democrats such as Clinton and Obama faithful, but I’m sure there are many Democrats who are just not comfortable with the party’s current state or policies. Trump already got Tulsi and RFK to jump ship, and I’m sure that once the current tariff campaign comes to a conclusion and the economic trends start to rise, there will be more Democrats follow suit. Even Fetterman has already supported some policy.
    
    The Democrats have painted themselves into a corner. Kamala was a disaster, and it seems they are now promoting AOC and Bernie (The Fox & the Fossil – apologies to the wonderful band of that name!). This apparently is their hope. I can only see that come 2028, if the Democrats have not come to their senses and moved back towards the center, there will be even a bigger GOP landslide.
    
    Meanwhile I can see Trump having a hell of a time playing the Democrats, and the left wing Press, and staying on the “front page”.
    
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    May 6, 2025 9:26am
  - Simon
    
    More concerned about Israel having nukes given the way they wage war against civilians
    
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    May 6, 2025 9:38am
    - kiwimike
      
      thank you for outing yourself Simon.
      Good to know.
      
      7 1
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      May 6, 2025 12:10pm
  - Ghost
    
    People don’t hold Trump to the same standards as past president’s.
    
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    May 6, 2025 9:48am
  - Ra Henare
    
    DG, I thought in context the use of triggered is entirely appropriate.
    
    If you get handed a loaded gun and you don’t like it, you pass it on, or unload it.
    You don’t pull the trigger.
    
    You insinuated that if you are handed a loaded gun, you immediately pull the trigger.
    
    Adults tend to have the ability for rational thinking.
    If you don’t like something, you ignore it, surely???
    
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    May 6, 2025 3:19pm
- Zapper
  
  People are obsessed, including One News who, when I make the mistake of watching, will have the most ridiculous story in the first block.
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:39am
Yvette

Sovereignty
To my knowledge, which of course may be wrong, New Zealand mainstream media are totally gutless.
Prime Minister Luxon, while stating sovereignty abides with the Crown, knows that his predecessor ex-Prime Minister Hipkins says Maori did not cede sovereignty, but both voted down the Treaty Principles Bill.
Where is any MSM “journalist” who would ask Christopher Luxon if he would vote down a simple bill – now obviously needed – which would say “Government has sovereignty”, without mentioning the bloody Treaty?
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May 6, 2025 8:29am
- pdm
  
  An even better question is this Yvette.
  
  1. PM Luxon says Maori ceded Sovereignty.
  2. PM Luxon says the treaty has principles.
  
  Journalists should be pointing out to PM Luxon that these two positions are incompatible and asking which statement is correct???
  
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  May 6, 2025 10:40am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The treaty has principles since the damage done in 75, he is not talking about founding principles
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:48am
    - kiwimike
      
      Wake up G
      PDM point is very clear.
      
      6 1
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      May 6, 2025 12:11pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        I don’t care what PDMs point was, i was pointing to what Luxon’s point was
        
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        May 6, 2025 12:54pm
  - Yvette
    
    pdm, what I had hoped to indicate in my comment is:
    
    ➡ enough confusion probably now exists that legislated clarity is required on the right of the Government to govern, and the equal rights and responsibilities of all New Zealanders, without mentioning the Treaty
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:43am
  - Yvette
    
    With the recent defeat of the Treaty Principles Bill, New Zaland faces a constitutional crisis. With the exception of the ACT Party’s MPs, every Member of the House voted to reject both the principle that our democratically elected Parliament is sovereign and the principle that all New Zealand citizens have the same equal status before the law. Worse, the Prime Minister has specifically stated that there was nothing in the Bill that he supported. – John Bell
    https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/john-bell-new-zealand-s-constitutional-crisis-where-to-for-treaty-principles
    
    See? – the Treaty Principles Bill is needed, without mentioning the Treaty.
    
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    May 6, 2025 11:49am
    - Mike
      
      Hysterical nonsense
      
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      May 6, 2025 1:24pm
- Paulus
  
  Shouldn’t need for Luxon to say anything, as it is only a very small proportion of the public, and the media, who want to try and embarrass the elected Prime Minister, through whom, “Government has Sovereignty”.
  
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  May 6, 2025 2:58pm
G the giant from Dunedin

Oh my god you want to see and hear the outrage over the one news commando style hitjob on Erica Stanford using emails when trying to copy when out of the office.

It was good the PM yesterday was able to point to several Labour ministers did exactly the same thing including Hipkins as PM. what a hypocrite Hipkins is as her has called for her head, this will harm the One views more, and give weight to Peters defunding the media calls, they have the audacity to have a second part to the hitjob bullshit tonight, they know polling is happening, and they think this will see the left boom because incumbents stayed in power after being extremely unpopular before, the point they miss is its incumbents, not the left.
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May 6, 2025 8:32am
- Taieri
  
  It was good the PM yesterday was able to point to several Labour ministers did exactly the same thing including Hipkins as PM
  ————
  
  So, we should condone this sort of practices just because “several Labour ministers did exactly the same thing”?
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:28am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not at all, but what has happened is when she is away from the office and same with Labours ministers they can’t print off their ministerial email, sounds like the phone should be adapted, but if she is in say CHCH how does she print something, I don’t think they can use their ministerial email unless that are sitting in front of a government computer, I think this is what the printing issue is, even one news pointed to the fat they can print if necessary that particular way, Sherman trying to suggest 100s of pages were printed, but it sounds like about 10 emails, and some emails were simply replies to constituents.
    
    The arrogance on Hipkins to argue this even though he did exact the same thing as PM and which was probably more serious if it led to security in this country, was a disgrace.
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:18am
    - Ghost
      
      No, they can use their ministerial email where ever they are. Also the technology has been upgraded since hipkins did it, which is why hipkin changed the rules around it.
      
      4 2
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      May 6, 2025 11:05am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Are you sure about that? I know they can use their MP email, but i thought for security minister could not
        
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        May 6, 2025 12:56pm
  - kiwi_chileno
    
    Exactly right, Taieri. Luxon’s flippant Whataboutism – Labour did it too, so it’s OK for Stanford (or any other Minister) – is pathetic. He manages again to subceed my low expectations of him. It involved Budget secret information. Amongst other things, this is an infosec issue (obviously not on the scale of Signalgate). That the Cabinet manual permits the use of unofficial, potentially insecure services (eg, Gmail) and apps at all is unbelievable. It also points to a failure by the Cabinet Office, Ministerial Services, etc to provide secure end-to-end, zero trust ICT systems and enforce their use.
    
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    May 6, 2025 1:43pm
- Gravelroad
  
  That non “story” last night was possibly triggered (apologies to Mr Garrett) by the scandal built up around some high up in the US government making a mistake with his own email lists and practices recently.
  That gave the anti Trump brigade something to crow about and obsess over.
  And possible resignations of those involved – which is what the Labour Party parliamentary media department here was fishing for last night.
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:53am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Let’s see what happens, because Hipkins apparently had done the same thing as Minister but had the cheek to poke his runny nose in
    
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    May 6, 2025 10:21am
Zapper

Did anyone (I’m guessing only a couple of people) see the beat up of a story on Erica Stanford forwarding a few emails to her gmail account to print out attachments?

Breathless reporting of an exclusive months in the making. I guess they slept for 6 years so now they chase even the smallest story.

They didn’t seem very interested when a text was leaked from a minister of the last govt instructing MPs to use forms of communication which weren’t “OIA-able”
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May 6, 2025 8:42am
slightlyrighty

Not that we needed it, but the Erica Stanford story is proof that TVNZ news is now the propaganda arm of the Labour Party.
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May 6, 2025 8:43am
- cmm
  
  You really needed this as proof?
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:27am
- imalwaysright
  
  The other arms are the unions, the public service, and the judiciary.
  
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  May 6, 2025 12:24pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  It seems pretty clear that Stanford is doing an excellent job and this is upsetting the Teachers Union who have whinged to Chippie who has whinged to Maiki in an obvious attempt to try and unseat Stanford. Expect more of the same from the media as they target effective Ministers in the build up to next years election.
  
  It’s all so bleeding obvious that you have to be a left supporter to not understand this is part of a wider strategy.
  
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  May 6, 2025 1:32pm
Chuck Bird

Luxon should read this but he won’t.

New York Post, suggesting that New York City sea levels might surge 13 inches by the 2030s

https://irrationalfear.substack.com/p/the-sea-level-lie-exposed?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5c7b0a12-7e98-423c-90ab-8aa1bc2ff3bd_1159x1076.png&open=false
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May 6, 2025 8:46am
- rouppe
  
  First, a 2024 paper in Science China Earth Sciences highlighted in SciTechDaily reports that for the first time in decades, the Antarctic Ice Sheet experienced a net mass gain. This growth occurred between 2021 and 2022 and was driven primarily by unusually high snowfall over East Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.
  
  The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption occurred in January 2022. That expelled huge amounts of water vapour into the atmosphere. That Chris Brandalino assured me had nothing to do with anything from a meteorological standpoint.
  
  Probably a coincidence…
  
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  May 6, 2025 8:57am
  - Mike
    
    The Wattsupwiththat reporting of that was comically misleading.
    
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    May 6, 2025 1:21pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    According to NASA’s website, the Antarctic ice volumes have been increasing for many years.
    
    They had previously reported it as decreasing for many years, but a decade ago, owned up to the fact that the Eastern ice was decreasing, but that the Western ice was increasing at twice the rate of the Eastern loss. They had purposefully ignored the Western gain, and extrapolated (modeled) the Eastern loss across the whole of Antarctica.
    
    It could be compared to your wife panicking about the state of your bank account fro several years, but then admitting she was only looking at the spending column, and not the income column.
    
    Junk Science.
    
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    May 6, 2025 1:51pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  Where can I take a bet that that won’t happen? At least I should still be alive in 20303 to collect.
  
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  May 6, 2025 9:03am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Wow, you are going to be alive for another 18,278 years?
    
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    May 6, 2025 1:53pm
- imalwaysright
  
  If Luxon believes the Climate Scam and that it is an existential threat due to floods and fires etc, then where is the massive increase in the Civil Defense budget?
  Shouldn’t the most likely to be affected areas be identified and gear bought and deployed to storage areas nearby?
  Where’s the plan?
  Where are the extra rescue, firefighters, medical staff?
  
  15 3
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  May 6, 2025 9:11am
  - JackRabbit
    
    If Luxon believes the Climate Scam and that it is an existential threat due to floods…
    
    As a Christian, I wonder what he thinks caused the Great Flood?
    
    3 2
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    May 6, 2025 1:54pm
- zulumonster
  
  No Chuck – I suspect Luxon will rather be reading this … and believing it.
  Think about the whales people!
  https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/05/02/how-gas-guzzling-tourists-are-loving-our-whales-to-death/?mc_cid=21fded7647&mc_eid=b68775a22a
  
  4 2
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  May 6, 2025 11:16am
Swifty

And what of the impacts on the purses and wallets of New Zealand families?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360677955/greens-want-close-egg-and-meat-loophole

“No idea” says the Greens!
12 1
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May 6, 2025 8:53am
slightlyrighty

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/ryan-bridge-the-ultimate-scandal/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1746472559
6 2
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May 6, 2025 8:57am
kowtow

Is there something to popular ( relatively) leaders losing their seats .
Abbott , Poliviere and now Dutton .

Are they being targetted by activists .
I see in P’s case there’s a suggestion some boundary changes are alleged to have brought in alot of civil servants into his electorate……..
12 5
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May 6, 2025 8:58am
- zulumonster
  
  I understand that Dutton’s seat has never been a “safe” one for him – but definitely still a surprising result.
  
  5 3
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  May 6, 2025 11:17am
- Flossie
  
  I’m not sure even “relatively” explains the popularity of these guys. “Not at all popular” sounds more correct to me.
  
  4 0
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  May 6, 2025 2:42pm
wisteria

The excitement generated over Erica Stanford and the emails is quite amazing as to how the newsmedia or Maiki Sherman can invent such a story. Somebody found these emails and send them to MS. Quite why she decided to make it a lead story on TVNZ one will remain a mystery. Sherman shows up how shallow is her thinking and intellect. Why does she not put her job up for public voting every three years and if not reappointed who else would employ her. We need more grownups in our media.
33 1
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May 6, 2025 9:47am
- Northshoredoc
  
  ‘Quite why she decided to make it a lead story on TVNZ one will remain a mystery.’
  
  Prepared to bet she is going to run for parliament before the end of the decade.
  
  16 2
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  May 6, 2025 9:59am
  - pdm
    
    doc do you think she will be 4 on the Labour list – one behind Jack Tame.
    
    Then again opinionated Maori female may get her ahead of `Lame’ Jack.
    
    10 0
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    May 6, 2025 10:45am
    - Paulus
      
      No, surely the terrible Maiki will join the Maori Party as is her right.
      
      4 0
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      May 6, 2025 3:02pm
- NK
  
  Of course the problem is there’s still ~30% of the public who watch and believe TVNZ garbage media. Not me, as I stopped watching it years ago. That 30% ish is slowly decreasing too, it’ll be 25% soon, then 15% etc. That can’t come soon enough. I blame the Nats. They should have sold TVNZ years ago when they had the chance.
  
  21 1
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  May 6, 2025 10:07am
  - Flossie
    
    Is there anyone, or any organisation, that would pay actual money to buy it?
    
    6 0
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    May 6, 2025 10:37am
    - Paulus
      
      Yes, they may buy it buy it and shut it down, and laugh, as it cost so little.
      
      3 0
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      May 6, 2025 3:04pm
  - pdm
    
    I watch but unlike The Beatles I am `not a believer’ of almost everything apart from the sports and weather that I see on TVNZ news.
    
    5 2
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    May 6, 2025 10:46am
    - tavita
      
      pdm does that make you a monkey?
      
      7 0
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      May 6, 2025 11:32am
      - pdm
        
        I don’t think so tavita but, as a boomer I do enjoy their music and of course the music of the Beatles.
        
        2 0
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        May 6, 2025 11:59am
    - bennerg
      
      I think that was “The Monkees” not the Beatles. Also Donkey in the Shrek movie.
      
      6 1
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      May 6, 2025 11:33am
newview

Two more CHB farms totalling 1280 hectares have been sold to overseas forestry buyers. This is mainly good farm land. The lamb kill for the coming season will be down a million lambs this next season according to reports with freezing works struggling. The golden goose is being killed in plain sight. This thick government hasn’t worked out NZ export earnings will drop with every hectare sold.
31 3
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May 6, 2025 10:14am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes, and the law changes announced in December has not fully gone through parliament process yet, Hosking had Hoggard on the radio this morning and stated it will not happen anymore as soon as the legislation if finished, not just foreign, but existing NZ farmers wanting to diversify will only be allowed to plant 25% of their land on the top performing soils in this country
  
  8 0
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  May 6, 2025 10:31am
  - pdm
    
    g – are National holding this legislation up too?
    
    4 2
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    May 6, 2025 12:01pm
    - Ghost
      
      https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/protecting-nz-food-production-and-ets-credibility
      
      Legislation will be introduced in 2025 and is intended to enter into force from October 2025.
      
      3 0
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      May 6, 2025 12:08pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  I pointed this out to my “agricultural advisor” the other day as we figured how I deal with the NPS-HPL – the National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land.
  
  Yes to turning pasture back into trees – plus also solar and wind farms. No to a simple lifestyle block or two.
  
  4 2
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  May 6, 2025 11:46am
cmm

Do something, anything. Feel good nonsense from National.

Keeping kids off social media has got as much chance of succeeding as keeping them in school or keeping 14 year olds away from porn.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-introduces-bill-to-ban-social-media-for-under-16s/CFN76PV7UBCOPNGIRQGQO2RVHI/
14 3
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May 6, 2025 10:19am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Then the same kids can stop saying they are suicidal over threats from bullies and the like if they are underage, I thought you had to be 16 anyway. I note ACT put a bill in equally small yesterday, but yes I realise we must attack Nat’s at all costs.
  
  5 6
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  May 6, 2025 10:24am
- cmm
  
  Of course legislation is one thing. Enforcement is quite another.
  
  I have a proposal: no new laws until you can show that current laws are being enforced.
  
  I would be happy if the laws against using social media while driving were enforced. Using a phone while driving has been on the books for well over a decade. Every day I see dozens of people using their phones while driving. I haven’t seen anyone pulled over for this in the last 6 months or so.
  
  So adding a law to forbid social media for kids is going nowhere.
  
  10 1
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  May 6, 2025 10:50am
  - tavita
    
    cmm the police published a figure showing how many drivers were driving while using their phones. It was a higher proportion than the proportion of accidents where mobile phone use was deemed a factor. I think the inference is that using your phone while driving is safer than not.
    
    5 1
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    May 6, 2025 11:30am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Enforcement will be minimal, if at all, and will be more an excercise in public relations to convince the general public that signing up for a digital ID was all for the good of the kids.
    Once this is complete, the government will be able to be the gatekeeper of the internet.
    Approved users only.
    
    5 1
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    May 6, 2025 2:11pm
- nova
  
  If you ask people to prove their age then you take away anonymity. So the impact of this is not just the under 16s, to do this properly you are moving to a regulated internet where everyone has to disclose their identity. The other problem is defining social media. Does it apply to all possible ways that individuals can communicate? Does TradeMe count, given they have a message board? Or is it just a specific list that needs to be continually updated every time a new app comes out.
  
  6 0
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  May 6, 2025 11:25am
  - Flossie
    
    If you ask people their age they’re going to lie. I know many kids (of friends and extended family) on social media with false year of birth listed. If I can see their accounts presumably their parents can. What chance is there of enforcing any new laws regarding this.
    
    6 0
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    May 6, 2025 12:55pm
    - Interested Party
      
      It will be hard to enforce, but the law would give parents another tool in preventing their kids from using social media
      
      1 0
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      May 6, 2025 1:21pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Rather than treaty teaching to sub teens. How about safe use of social media.
  
  Would save heaps more lives and help stop the rot of division in this country.
  
  Interestingly enough, the wear a seat belt education campaign to school children had a far better outcome that passing a law to make it compulsory.
  
  ie Kids telling Mum or Dad, put your seatbelt on.
  
  3 0
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  May 6, 2025 3:28pm
sirknz

Apparently Satanists are now classed as right wing now.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fbi-arrests-expose-far-right-cult-with-nz-links-dia-warns-of-victimisation/TCYCYKKBNBE5PCK4A7E2BNIPKA/

Weird, I’ve always thought of them as more lefty adjacent given their penchant for paying for things they want now, down the road at a very high cost.
8 2
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May 6, 2025 10:32am
BeaB

The truly shocking detail about Erica Stanford’s emails is that she tagged them to officials so they were open to the Official Information Act for the media to find! The infamy! And the world might have heard info about how to teach spelling!
Then we had John Campbell with an utterly pointless but hyped-up story about Destiny Church moving to new premises. How is this even news?
Then we have the outrage about the axing of the programme for clusters of school to provide each with Professional Development. There was even more outrage when it was first introduced by John Key but now they want the evidence for scrapping it. Perhaps our disastrous maths and literacy achievement might do it.
The media has lost the plot. And still no scrutiny of Bussy Doyle, just PR puffery.
23 1
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May 6, 2025 11:10am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  The media in the UK spent a lot of time covering up or turning a blind eye to child abusers in the UK media and show biz.
  
  9 0
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  May 6, 2025 1:23pm
- graham
  
  John Campbell has recently spent months “investigating” Destiny Church, and produced a five-part series of programs for the TVNZ on-demand platform. So I imagine that any new story about Destiny, no matter how irrelevant or banal, would have him salivating at the thought that he can dig for more dirt to sling and keep the story alive. Oh, and continue to justify his position as “chief correspondent”.
  
  9 2
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  May 6, 2025 1:38pm
kiwi_chileno

Good news from Romania. In the Presidential election, the young nationalist, Eurocritical candidate won most votes (but not the absolute majority to avoid a second round.) He got 40% of the vote and the next highest polling candidate – from the Blob’s ruling party – only got 20%. The result may trigger a snap parliamentary election. This was a re-run of last year’s Presidential election, which was annulled because of alleged Russian interference. That election was also won by another nationalist Eurocritic, who was barred from running this time. It seems that the political caste used law-fare to cancel the election because they didn’t like the result (‘democracy for me, but not for thee’).

The Eurocrats are increasingly frightened by people and parties who represent justified popular anger (and not just at uncontrolled, mass immigration). They’re cancelling the ‘far right’ and ‘extremists’ like Marine Le Pen, the AfD….and others, like a Spanish activist, recently imprisoned for a year for ‘hate speech’ (she said that immigrants are invaders and that Spain is a Christian not a Moslem nation).
11 2
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May 6, 2025 11:11am
imalwaysright

Russia and Ukraine are recruiting NZ duck hunters.
7 2
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May 6, 2025 11:57am
Ghost

Parliament should be interesting today

The Government is fast-tracking amendments to the Equal Pay Act, the law which prohibits employers from paying men and women different rates for the same work, in a move which will scrap all current pay equity claims and make it harder for employees to make a claim.

Article
8 1
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May 6, 2025 12:28pm
- BeaB
  
  Excellent. The whole equity thing has become confusing, emotional, irrational and cynical.
  Fix injustices, don’t create them.
  
  14 2
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  May 6, 2025 1:32pm
Ghost

Probably the best choice for chairman

NZME’s likely new chairman Steven Joyce says he hopes to unify the media company’s shareholders as much as possible, following two months of sometimes heated debate over the company’s performance and editorial endeavour.

Joyce, a National Party Cabinet minister for three terms from 2008 and an experienced commercial media businessman….

Article
10 1
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May 6, 2025 12:31pm
BeaB

What nonsense the Nats are falling for with the proposed social media ban for under 16’s.
Apart from the reality that kids will learn from an early age to break the law with no fear of consequences, what is for many teens the most stressful part of their lives, full of toxic relationships, negative emotions, fear of failure, bullying, apathy and boredom?
The answer of course is school. No wonder so many of them don’t want to go and stay away.
Putting their energies into making schools fit for the present and future would be a far more productive pursuit for our leaders than obsessing over Instagram.
13 4
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May 6, 2025 1:31pm
- losingtheplot
  
  So your answer to the mental health problems caused by social media in teenagers is . . . do nothing.
  
  3 0
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  May 6, 2025 9:26pm
  - Ghost
    
    The old folks on hee have little idea how toxic social media is for kids, how much bullying goes on. They’re stuck in their ways
    
    1 0
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    May 6, 2025 9:34pm
Swifty

I’m sorry, I just cannot understand the government’s messaging on this issue.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/watch-government-to-make-pay-equity-announcement/UPBOYCPX2JAQ3PQNKR2QXOPQKA/

No coalition MP should ever talk about ‘costs to government’, they should only ever talk about costs to taxpayers, or costs to New Zealand families.

The fact is there is a proportion of New Zealanders who think government is a bottomless money pit and talk of ‘costs to government’ only exacerbates this misconception and plays into the hands of the left.

The government forking out billions extra annually for pay equity claims comes directly from taxpayer wallets and purses – the wallets and purses of New Zealand families.

Government communications should hammer this point home time after time, year after year.

(Please note this in no way reflects my opinion of any equal pay claims or the merits thereof – I’m just saying that any pay claim will be paid for by New Zealand families.)
11 1
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May 6, 2025 1:46pm
- Ian Boag
  
  any pay claim will be paid for by New Zealand families.
  
  Same people that are paying for steadily increasing pension costs and the landlord tax break.
  
  Go figure
  
  0 0
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  May 7, 2025 6:38pm
Ghost

Privileges Committee chairwoman Judith Collins is “pretty shocked” after Te Pāti Māori shared on social media what appears to be a report on potential consequences for several of their MPs performing a haka in the House.

The political party on Tuesday afternoon posted on Instagram a screenshot of what appears to be a Privileges Committee report, likely a draft report given the committee has not made a final determination.

Article
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May 6, 2025 5:57pm
- Keith White
  
  Judith Renault-Collins is shocked, shocked? Say it ain’t so!
  
  2 1
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  May 6, 2025 7:52pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360679717/80-years-after-world-war-ii-germany-still-painstakingly-searching-its-fallen-soldiers
Somehow I cannot feel sorry for any German: what they did to Europe and beyond, for 12 years, far outweighs anything else. Even the Romans hated (and feared) the Germans.
1 4
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May 6, 2025 6:18pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From the article:
  
  These are also people and they also deserve a burial.
  
  Exactly.
  
  1 0
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  May 6, 2025 10:25pm

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