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August 19, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 19 August 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

Roger Partridge analyses the Green (actually Red) Party economic policy:

“This is the Greens at their most delusional: a vision of economic transformation divorced from reality. Every forty years, Swarbrick says, the country reinvents itself. This time, apparently, by taxing more, borrowing more, and junking the system that has spread prosperity around the globe for a naive fantasy.”

Apparently Stalin’s New Economic Policy which starved several million people to death and Mao’s Great Leap Forward which killed even more would have worked if they’d just kept doing it a bit longer.

But as Partridge states: “Political gifts rarely come this perfectly wrapped, with such detailed costings and such obvious implementation gaps. All the Coalition needs to do is point to the Greens’ own numbers and ask: ‘Seriously?’”

And at the same time ask Labour what its Leader and MPs think and then watch as they tie themselves in knots. Hipkins will be able to get a job as a circus contortionist after this.
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August 19, 2025 8:02am
- artemisia
  
  Two words. Capital flight.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:05am
- JackRabbit
  
  “…All the Coalition needs to do is point to the Greens’ own numbers and ask: ‘Seriously?’”
  
  On a prime location billboard would be good. Perhaps beside an image of Chloe and Stalin, and corresponding ideals.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:21am
- peterwn
  
  The economic version of ‘Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle’ (Physics 101) would be at work. Proponents of a wealth tax assume that all other parameters would stay the same apart from the tax to be assessed. A 2% wealth tax does not sound much, but those subject to it would (later if not immediately) have to sell assets to pay the tax. Since more assets than usual are being sold, it would tend to be a buyer’s market. So when the assets are re-valued, the wealth tax base will diminish and less tax will be collected.
  A wealth tax would particularly appeal to Chloe and her ilk as it would start producing money straight away. It would be some years after introduction that a capital gains tax starts producing meaningful amounts.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:21am
  - Handyman
    
    In marketing it is called “the fallacy of last response”.
    “If we drop our price we will increase market share to make up for loss of margin”.
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:27am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Not trying to be a pedantic P in the A or anything but I was trying to wrap my head around your description of “the fallacy of last response” so I asked Grok AI.
      
      It stated:
      That description doesn’t quite match the “fallacy of last response” in marketing. The statement “If we drop our price we will increase market share to make up for loss of margin” is more about a pricing strategy assumption, often tied to the concept of price elasticity or a penetration pricing strategy. It suggests lowering prices to attract more customers and boost sales volume, hoping to offset reduced profit margins with a larger market share.
      However, this isn’t the same as the fallacy of last response, which is about overvaluing the most recent customer feedback (like a single complaint or review) and assuming it represents everyone’s views. The pricing example could be a different kind of fallacy, like the fallacy of single cause (assuming price cuts alone will drive market share without considering other factors like competition, brand perception, or product quality).
      So, while the pricing strategy might be a valid marketing topic, it’s not an accurate description of the fallacy of last response.
      
      I asked it for a concise plain English definition of “the fallacy of last response” in regards marketing. This is it’s response:
      The “fallacy of last response” in marketing refers to the mistake of assuming the most recent customer feedback or response is the most important or representative of all customers. It happens when marketers overemphasize the latest comment, review, or complaint, thinking it reflects the broader audience’s views, while ignoring older or more varied data. This can lead to skewed decisions, like changing a campaign based on one loud voice instead of considering the bigger picture.
      
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      August 19, 2025 9:56pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    A wealth tax of 2% only applies to 3% of the population she says as there is a $2 million exemption per person. I do not believe that. As a couple are ok until one dies and their $2.5 million Auckland home is then suddenly owned by one person. And $500,000 @ 2% each year is $10k for Chloe!
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:31am
    - Quail
      
      Most farms have an unrealised value in excess of the Greens $2.million
      And that is before they produce a thing.
      Manufacturing and a lot of business much the same.
      Already the workforce in some of these businesses can cost much more than Swarbricks magic figure.
      The damage to the NZ economy is would be huge.
      A wealth tax is one of the stupidest suggestions ever made by NZ politicians!
      
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      August 19, 2025 2:54pm
  - Swifty
    
    I’d have far more sympathy for new, different taxes if:
    
    1. The Left agreed to running government far more efficiently
    2. The Left agreed to find significant savings in government through the total scrapping of low value functions
    3. The Left agreed to permanently lower existing taxes (personal, company, GST etc) to compensate for the new taxes
    
    But no, the Left want more and more government, regard any ‘savings’ as a terrible evil, and could never, ever be trusted to keep their word on lowered taxes with their insatiable drive for more and more government spending – and some new ‘crisis’ would always be used to substantiate their new taxation demands.
    
    So it’s a firm ‘no’ from me.
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:36am
  - cmm
    
    The major problem with a 2% wealth tax is that it becomes a foot in the door that opens up 5%, 10% 20% wealth taxes and ongoing taxation.
    
    Would a 2% wealth tax return much? I doubt it, but it will certainly appeal to the people who deal in envy politics.
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:50am
    - peterwn
      
      Assuming that 50% of the whole non-government asset base of NZ was subject to wealth tax, a 2% wealth tax would be a very significant sum. Higher rates would be transformational but not in the way Chloe and her mates like to think.
      
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      August 19, 2025 12:25pm
      - cmm
        
        Of course it wouldn’t be applied to everything.
        It would only be applied to stuff that Rich Pricks own.
        
        2% is rather high. Most of the countries that have imposed wealth taxes have only done so for very high wealth individuals and less than 1%. Well, countries we would like to compare ourselves with anyway…
        
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        August 19, 2025 12:52pm
      - slijmbal
        
        As far as I am aware the majority of wealth taxes had to be walked back as they resulted in too much capital flight.
        
        For instance; UK is currently seeing a major outflux of millionaires based on a raft of tax changes including a 2% wealth tax but on a damn site more reasonable 10m GBP. They are also about to increase death duties to hit the middle classes or anyone owning a house in a richer area and even having a decent penson fund.
        
        UK Labour are busy taxing the UK into oblivion. Ironically, they probably won’t hit the really wealthy at all just the well off and middle class.
        
        Time to start hiding assets offshore for some.
        
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        August 19, 2025 1:05pm
  - AitchW
    
    What a stunning way to stifle the improvement of property. If a couple owns a property worth a couple of hundred k under the “wealth” tax there is a very good disincentive to improving their property so as to stay under the threshold.
    A classic example of dumb lefties not considering the consequences of their policies.
    But, I suspect, the dumb Greens really don’t care!
    
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    August 19, 2025 5:30pm
- Boy Geoff
  
  Chloe says capitalism’s cooked – upon what foundation is she planning to tax and borrow?
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:29am
  - Phronesis
    
    I think you mean print and spend.
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:11am
- mandk
  
  Swarbrick has the same intellectual grunt as her soulmate, Greta Thunberg; that is to say, none.
  
  Swarbrick also pouts like Thunberg.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:30am
  - Debsta
    
    And they have the furrowed brow perfected! Both are a joke. I don’t know how anyone with a brain can’t see right through these airheads 🙄
    
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    August 19, 2025 11:14am
- redeye
  
  I noticed Luxon on Hoskins yesterday made a point of saying, in relation to Aucklands bed tax, that now is not the time for any new tax. He then repeated it.
  So Hipkins is promoting a CGT and the Greens want an inheritance, a wealth tax and a tax on anyone who works too hard.
  Definite line drawn here.
  And just on the CGT.
  https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/tax/distasteful-growing-calls-to-tax-the-family-home/news-story/e5fe45b6debee890ed40ea87d85330b2
  
  Ahead of Labor’s three-day Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra this week, economists from the University of Technology Sydney and Melbourne University have put forward their own “bold” proposal, arguing it’s time to “time to consider taxing the family home” by ending the capital gains tax (CGT) exemption.
  
  …
  
  Treasury estimates it forgoes around $50 billion a year in revenue by exempting family homes from CGT.
  In 1999, the Howard government also introduced a 50 per cent CGT discount if the asset is owned for at least 12 months.
  
  The CGT discount equates to around $19 billion a year in lost tax revenue.
  
  Scrapping the CGT discount, along with negative gearing — allowing property investors to deduct losses from their from taxable income — has long been called for by critics who argue the tax concessions help drive up house prices and fuel inequality.
  
  A timely reminder that once a new tax has been introduced it’ll never leave. It will only grow and become a greater imposition on those that want to work to better themselves.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:42am
  - peterwn
    
    A bed tax is double taxation. Hotels and motels pay ‘commercial’ rates so there is already a bed tax component compared with ordinary houses and apartments.
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:24am
    - Colville
      
      I have some sympathy for a bed tax in Auckland.
      Hotels absolutely pump the punters when there are concerts or events like rugby on…and quite often council has supported those events…so why shouldnt the ratepayers get something back in the tin?
      
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      August 19, 2025 11:26am
- Handyman
  
  Talking to a Green Party person is both funny and sad.
  — They interpret “delusional” as “visionary”.
  — All money problems can be solved by taxing the rich.
  — All solutions involve getting “free stuff” from the government.
  
  I take these conversations in a light hearted way. I say I agree with the capital gains tax but it should paid from residual funds as part of probate. Obviously, the rate would need to increase.
  Yea! they say until the penny drops – they will inherit nothing from mummy and daddy. That is the funny bit.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:41am
- Philview
  
  The Coalition can ask the questions but where would most of the public hear about it.
  
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  August 19, 2025 11:21am
artemisia

Victoria, Australia is in the (Rebel) News again, and not in a good way, with another concerning incident.

The controversy erupted last Monday when an Israeli man attended Juniper Salon for a booked appointment. After hearing his foreign accent, owner Katrina Ann “Trina” Smith asked where he was from. When he replied “Israel,” she allegedly called him a “genocidal baby killer” and ordered him to leave.

Interestingly, or should that be ironically, the apparent owner is wearing a top with AROHA MAI, AROHA ATU – love received, love returned.

https://www.rebelnews.com/watch_avi_yemini_confronts_woke_hairdresser_banning_israelis
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August 19, 2025 8:06am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Typical to focus on far away stuff for emoting and performing while ignoring the local:
  
  Victoria’s coat of arms bears the phrase “Peace and Prosperity”, but there’s a lot more of the latter in that state these days than the former, and that’s not saying much. Violent robberies in Victoria have grown by more than 150 per cent since February 2024 due to tobacco-related crime.
  
  Now a $10 billion a year business across Aussie apparently, with groups firebombing each other.
  
  Prohibition eh.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:21am
  - kowtow
    
    $10 billion business .
    
    Diversity dividend . Innit.
    
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    August 19, 2025 8:51am
  - Skippytony
    
    The truly, arseachingly painful thing about the “unexpected upsurge” in criminal activity and related violence is that it was sooooo predictable.
    
    Exactly the same thing will be going on beneath the surface here, its just that the violence hasn’t got into the public domain yet.
    
    The we got to look forward to 30 odd years of ploice effort trying to stem the tide.
    
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    August 19, 2025 9:02am
  - Colville
    
    Ciggies 60 cents a pack landed in Aussie from China according to podcast I heard… back the truck up how many 1000X cartons do you want?
    
    That is a massive margin… wholesale at $5 a pack and then retail at $10?
    
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    August 19, 2025 11:31am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    When you have a population of increasingly selfish and greedy grifters this is what you get. IMHO it’s generally a rat race. Oh, and the weather is also shit!
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:03pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I’m talking Melbourne. User experiences may differ in other parts of Victoria. The weather statement still stands. Spring and Summer are erratic and peppered with extremes. Labor (sic) appears to be steadily running the place down. I’m pretty much over the place.
      
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      August 19, 2025 10:48pm
- JackRabbit
  
  ROAR. Right Of Admission Reserved. Like any business owner she is free to evict anyone from her salon.
  
  But words have consequences. Accusing someone of being a “genocidal baby killer” is a step too far.
  
  Can you imagine the uproar if a Palestinian was evicted from a salon and called a “rapist and bloody butcher beheader”? Or in the case of Ukraine, “press gang murderer”?
  
  Incidents like this only happen because of media brainwashing.
  
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  August 19, 2025 8:26am
imalwaysright

David Seymour was asked, by Sean Plunket on the Platform, why the government don’t clean out the politically biased heads of the public service.

He said they don’t want to set a precedent for Labour to do the same.

So this government will hamstring themselves and the country by babysitting the marxist bureaucracy until Labour returns.

What’s the point of being in government then ?
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August 19, 2025 8:42am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Labour already did this to install the current crop.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:03am
  - Paulus
    
    Now I believe abbreviated into to DEI which remains in the 65,000 Public Servants, where the numbers have actually increased since being told to reduce numbers.
    
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    August 19, 2025 2:44pm
- Burtland
  
  cleaning out RNZ, NZonAir and TVNZ should have been a priority in the first week back – to not do so has been a colossal mistake
  
  a return to pre-labour staffing levels for the rest would have tied them down
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:36am
  - Quail
    
    Those comments on reducing bureaucracy are right on the money.
    To add to the mix:
    The same civil service works for all elected Governments. Labour or National!
    The advice given as a matter of integrity would be similar.
    There are very few changes in the elected composition of Parliament .
    MMP ensures a job for those MP’s who lose their seats lin other Government work ,either on the list , a party servant or a well paying job within the NZ bureaucracy.
    All positions of influence!
    So ,because of MMP anyone hoping for or expecting change is going to be sorely disappointed..
    That is what is happening in NZ now.
    MMP is a disaster.
    
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    August 19, 2025 3:21pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Toss out the lefty judiciary while you’re at it and replace with ones better representing what you stand for.
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:33pm
- cmm
  
  I recently saw a conservative political commentator say:
  
  * Left wing governments lose support because they go too far.
  * Right wing governments lose support because they don’t go far enough.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:54am
Scooter

Why do Judges keep giving permanent name suppression for those caught with Child Abuse Material. The article below seems similar to the current one. Coincidence?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/wellington/132424462/judge-permanently-suppresses-name-of-man-caught-with-objectionable-child-images-online
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August 19, 2025 9:03am
- David Garrett
  
  Scooter: Anyone who gets off on seeing children and babies abused is a seriously miswired POS…And adults like this are near on impossible to treat
  
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  August 19, 2025 9:31am
  - Scooter
    
    This is the lates one I was refering to. From a wealthy family and donated $50k to 2 charities.
    
    https://x.com/DailyTelegraph5/status/1957670533862158724?t=2-PMAeha4n8E2ZPq7VW-JA&s=19
    
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    August 19, 2025 6:01pm
- imalwaysright
  
  I see that his name won’t go on the Sex Offender Register either.
  
  It appears that the judge is setting this scum up for a fresh start, rather than punishing him…
  
  Eight months home D and his identity protected by the NZ Justice system and the NZ Police
  
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  August 19, 2025 9:45am
  - Chris2
    
    The Sex Offender Register in New Zealand is pointless as its only available to the Police and Social Welfare. It’s not a public register.
    
    In contrast, many States in the USA have public registers where you enter your address and it displays a map of all the sex offenders living near you, what they did, what sentence they got, what their modus operandi was, a photo of them and vehicle details. In some States sex offenders have to have a sign on their front lawn saying “sex offender lives here”.
    
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    August 19, 2025 12:04pm
    - Ghost
      
      Federal court ruled against the signs
      
      https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/federal-appeals-court-rules-butts-county-sheriffs-office-cant-put-signs-in-sex-offenders-yards
      
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      August 19, 2025 1:03pm
bc

Judith Collins comes up with a new euphonism for lying – “mixing the message”.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/minister-judith-collins-apologises-for-mixing-the-message-over-secondary-school-teachers-pay/VPHJM5OVJBAWNIRY2JDJ4SRIWQ/

There was no mixing the message, the message was very clear. Lie through your teeth, in order to create outrage. Give a fake apology later.
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August 19, 2025 9:06am
Simon

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570351/transport-agency-disputes-systemic-failure-led-to-johnathon-walters-death

Import too much third world become the third world

Systems that worked in the 2000s will not work now. National party are a disgrace.
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August 19, 2025 9:09am
sirknz

Don’t forget to panic about covid everybody…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360792302/five-deaths-week-and-dozens-hospitalisations-show-covid-hasnt-gone-away

It’s weird how a new, genetically identical variant just pops up everywhere around the world at the same time…
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August 19, 2025 9:10am
- Phronesis
  
  In other words, more people die of the flu.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:10am
- Inandout
  
  sirk, that line ‘covid hasn’t gone away’ is what Pfizer use on their radio ads. Their ad begins ‘just because you haven’t heard people talking about it’.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:20am
- David Garrett
  
  sirk: Yep, it’s that deep state again…planting virus in different parts of the world…by way of chem trails I suspect.
  
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  August 19, 2025 11:20am
MCōs

Yesterday some Chch type suggested Northland was becoming a shithole
My nephew, who lives in Christchurch wrote this on Facebook the other day
Hello
This week there was a double shooting by Police of a crazy couple with hunting knife and a will to die… Male critical/stable, Female is Dead.
Normally this would be a surprise to most people.
But to me…. it is the latest peak violence incident to occur in the neighbourhood.
Over the last ten years I have been able to be within a five minute walk of the following crime scenes… on the same street..
A stabbing at a house that resulted in the garage being burned down, A murder/suicide.. One time there was a party that got violent a woman stabbed two people, both died.
A murder and serious injury …..The death of a recluse at start of first lockdown, not found for 2 weeks…. And then the guy who wandered out onto his porch one morning and started firing a pump action shot gun till the Police killed him..
Even closer to home, drive by shooting 4 houses away from me.. followed by an incident a couple weeks later the neighbors confronted some kids on their property all of a sudden the guy from the targeted house walks down the road towards the group with a shotgun.
Not to mention the burn outs, fights, and parties that spill out onto the road it brings a certain rotation of crazy that never ceases to amuse ..
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August 19, 2025 9:20am
- lifesgood
  
  And you still live there? Really?
  
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  August 19, 2025 9:23am
  - MCōs
    
    Me?
    I don’t live there.
    Too cold
    
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    August 19, 2025 10:01am
- kowtow
  
  In a nutshell ; socialist, do gooder , drug induced ,race hustler ,created mayhem.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:10am
- wsk12345
  
  And that’s a couple of suburbs. Chch is a big city, geographically. Ive lived here for 20 years on the other side of town from uour family member and the only issue we ever had was one night all the cars in thr area were broken into. And a few cars running off the side of the hills driven by stupid boy racers (far from any houses).
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:11am
- Burtland
  
  there are a lot of out-of-control, self medicating people in NZ suffering mental illness – chch is not immune – just one shithead will destroy your neighborhood
  
  [Mod – use correct names] has been responsible for planting KO social housing shit holes across many once good areas – social housing is a disaster – dont buy or rent near it
  
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  August 19, 2025 11:07am
  - Paulus
    
    Why the exponential increase in Mental Health and the booming increase in costs ?
    Never elected Little put I believe $1.9 billion into it and had not a single new bed to answer for it.
    Can we have some analysis for the enormous growth it it, and the costs .
    We do not yet have too many Muslims yet from whom some answers, like other countries, have to their Mental Health growth from some of their recent ethnicities.
    
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    August 19, 2025 2:54pm
- cmm
  
  Yup that area of Christchurch is certainly a shithole and I would not want to live there.
  
  Still, that is 10 years worth.
  
  I don’t live in the best area of Chch by any means , but we seldom see any incidents here other than a stolen car being dumped here every month or two. I can’t recall any violence in out street in the last 12 years we have lived here. Closest was a mongrel mob bloke having his face smashed one street over.
  
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  August 19, 2025 11:14am
RoboRob

Whats the status of the ‘Whānau Ora Funding Investigation’? The issue kicked off on June 27 with Tama Potaka saying he wanted answers “as soon as possible”.

Te Puni Kōkiri says its review into the use of Whānau Ora Commissioning funding will be completed “as soon as possible and ideally in July”.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/565756/te-puni-kokiri-cagey-on-when-funding-review-will-actually-be-released

The latest update is that it will be released in Mid August after all parties have provided feedback (Not many days of mid August left now).

https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/mo-te-puni-kokiri/our-stories-and-media/independent-review-into-alleged-inappropriate-use-

These ‘urgent’ investigations just turn into a ‘sit it on the back burner and keep it quite until people forget about it’ process. In the same way as the TPM / Tamahare Marae electoral issues just slowly chug along. It’s only been 18+ mths after all. Then of course there is TPMs failure to meet there legal requirments in regards to providing audited finanacials each year. Dont worry, they are only two years late having missed this years even after a police warning for missing last years. This is why TPM feel like they can do whatever they want. They can.
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August 19, 2025 9:23am
- Cassandra
  
  Mid August ended a few days ago.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:08am
- imalwaysright
  
  Don’t forget that the bureaucracy are predominantly marxist and anti the government.
  
  If this were ACT, NZF, or Nat being investigated it would have been done and dusted in a couple of weeks.
  
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  August 19, 2025 10:35am
- pdm
  
  RR.
  
  If my memory is correct Potaka said in the house on the day it came up (a Tuesday or maybe Wednesday QT) that he expected answers by the end of that week.
  
  He quickly backtracked on that.
  
  Before the 2026 election maybe?
  
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  August 19, 2025 11:02am
  - RoboRob
    
    Friday before a long weekend perhaps 🙂
    
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    August 19, 2025 11:53am
Skippytony

Somebody else arguing for dual citizenship standards….

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570327/should-maori-born-overseas-automatically-be-nz-citizens-father-fights-for-children-classed-as-illegal-overstayers
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August 19, 2025 11:04am
- rouppe
  
  This was a few days ago.
  
  None of them are nz citizens, having been born overseas.
  
  Don’t owe them anything
  
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  August 19, 2025 3:39pm
imalwaysright

Coal mine protestors start fourth week in a coal bucket and have cost the company over $500,000 in trucking costs.

Protesters suspended 80m in air claim ‘hostile’ tactics used by Stockton mining company – NZ Herald https://share.google/G5oxE7KpkvXVmzDxS
13 0
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August 19, 2025 11:18am
- rouppe
  
  Why don’t they just move the bucket down the line, and grab them?
  
  5 0
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  August 19, 2025 3:37pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Agreed. Surely there is no legal requirement for them to have to continue putting up with these idiots. Shift them to the loading area and arrest them for trespass & endangerment.
    
    4 1
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    August 19, 2025 4:14pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Yes, and also sue them for the $500,000.
      
      They look like they have a few bucks, set the lawyers on them.
      
      5 1
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      August 19, 2025 4:17pm
- Gravelroad
  
  It was claimed on newstalkzb last evening that these tossers are using a bucket as a toilet and tipping out their personal excrement into a water way below.
  These are supposed to be “conservationists”.
  I don’t think so.
  
  6 0
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  August 19, 2025 4:54pm
cmm

Homelessness is certainly on the slide in Christchurch.

Free camping in approved self-contained campervans is legal in most areas of Chch for up to 3 days stay in one place, but people have been bending those rules for quite a while.

Two areas in particular have had a lot of people camping up for a while – especially Lychgate Close and Wetlands Grove. While people are well behaved, the authorities just let them be. Good. If things start getting out of hand, then the cops move them on and a few days later it starts up again.

But now the authorities seem to have given up. There are now even people sleeping in the bushes in these areas in tarps and tents.

The Wetlands Grove area now has portaloos – clearly a sign that they are no longer intending enforcing the self-contained requirement.

Personally, I am all for alternative housing arrangements. I don’t see a problem with people living in tents or cars if they want to. But I also think this needs to be done in a sensible way so that the few don’t mess up the lives of the many.

Christchurch has large areas of red zoned land that stand vacant and are unused. Perhaps it makes some sense to create some trailer park – like facilities with reasonable security and ablution blocks etc.

Bottom line is that whether we like it or not, the sort of homelessness seen elsewhere is coming to NZ. We can sort things out a bit before they get out of hand.
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August 19, 2025 11:26am
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: I quite agree. Last summer I drove around the “red zone” areas in Christchurch. Having lived in the city and knowing it very well from having been a cabbie, I was struck by just how much such land there is. And because it was formerly inhabited, there is lots of mature trees that either survived the earthquake or have grown since.
  
  As I drove around, I thought what a pleasant site t would be to park a house bus for a while. Putting portaloos there seems eminently sensible to me.
  
  11 1
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  August 19, 2025 11:39am
  - cmm
    
    There are some interesting “village” style accommodations that they are making in some parts of USA to get homeless people off the streets and back onto the ladder.
    
    These “villages” consist of small, single-room dwellings built along the lines of site huts (ie. not concreted into the ground and that impervious to earthquake damage). They have redimentary furnishings and fittings. They are fenced in with 24/7 security to keep undesirables out, have showers. laundries etc, computer room – campground style). Weapons, drugs, booze, crime, gangs and anti-social behaviour are not tolerated.
    
    Unfortunately I doubt we’ll see any proactive action. More likely that we’ll wait for things to go off the rails first – then try to reel it back after the gangs have taken over.
    
    7 1
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    August 19, 2025 12:12pm
    - peterwn
      
      Stalag Luft 3 would be a good model to base these on.
      
      3 2
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      August 19, 2025 12:28pm
    - Burtland
      
      thought that was what the new library was for
      
      0 0
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      August 19, 2025 9:40pm
- NothingLeft
  
  That’s great, so everyone else is going to have to pay higher rates to support these freeloaders?
  
  Redzone is typical bureaucratic over-reaction, it will be redeveloped once enough time passes Karenocracy loses its sway in our world. It is quite possible to build houses that are proof against liquefaction and flooding with relatively little extra cost;
  -Rigid boat-like foundations of depth appropriate to make it neutrally buoyant in liquefaction type conditions (simple to calculate and design).
  -Mandate minimum living space floor altitude above flood levels
  -Set up legal framework putting all cost issues that might arise entirely on the home owner or their insurers, with no recourse to govt money.
  -Put all utilities in covered trenches that are easy to access, modify and repair. Or just go to septic tanks, water supply and power aren’t so tricky to maintain.
  
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  August 19, 2025 12:50pm
BeaB

Grant Robertson as usual self-serving, self-pitying and irredeemably self-righteous on RNZ this morning with Suzie Ferguson purring in agreement. Then audience feedback floods in, best summarised as our finest finance minister ever!
Perhaps RNZ is dumbing down because of its audience.
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August 19, 2025 11:38am
Notsofast

Women’s and children’s rights activist JK Rowling posts on X about a woman about to be hanged in Iran.
In the comments it is noted that elite young western women revere Iran and Hamas.
This fits the Chloe Swarbrick model who described the elimination of the Iranian nuclear threat as an illegal action by Israel and the USA.
The NZ green party have never commented on womens rights in Afghanistan that I can find.

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1957498044624023948?t=4-Z5T-TgYt66w9TtX1tc1g&s=19
9 1
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August 19, 2025 11:38am
- imalwaysright
  
  The Greens aren’t too interested in womens rights in NZ, nevermind Afghanistan.
  Hedonistic, narcissistic, marxists tend to care only about themselves.
  
  8 0
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  August 19, 2025 3:28pm
Happy1

I am disappointed that the coalition government is going to repeal the overseas buyers ban on houses. Not so much the repeal itself but the reasons. They are making this move because house prices are falling. It gives credence to the view that investing in housing is, in effect, government guaranteed. Lower house prices has helped many get their first home and lower prices still will help more. They should just let the market fall and not rush to prop up the market.
10 0
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August 19, 2025 11:38am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  It’s to increase bank profits.
  We are getting John Keyed again.
  
  5 2
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  August 19, 2025 1:51pm
- Ghost
  
  NZ First leader Winston Peters says he expects an announcement “soon” clearing the way for wealthy foreign investors to buy high-value houses in New Zealand.
  
  But he insists the foreign buyers ban – which prevents most foreigners from purchasing existing houses – will remain in place, unchanged.
  
  “We’re talking about investment. We’re changing those rules and what goes with them. You have to be patient – and we’ll tell you what the details are,” Peters told reporters on Wednesday.
  
  “But the Foreign Buyers Act is not changing.”
  
  Article
  
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  August 19, 2025 2:04pm
  - Happy1
    
    Yeah right
    
    1 0
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    August 19, 2025 3:25pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    RNZ?
    
    Righto.
    
    Will wait for a more balanced mob to let us know what the real story is.
    
    1 1
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    August 19, 2025 10:35pm
    - Ghost
      
      Feel free to point out what they have said that is wrong, they’ve quoted Winston. That’s the problem with this stupidity in this blog where people whinge about a news source, they’ve quoted can never show that what is in the article is wrong
      
      0 1
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      August 19, 2025 11:04pm
cmm

So… what happened to “buttergate”?

Two weeks ago the world was ending because of the price of butter. We had our Minister of Finance giving it breathless attention for about a week.

Now two weeks on and nobody is talking about the butter price any more – despite no meaningful movement.

It is really a case study in the irrationality of people and how easily they get swept up in a wave of hysteria.

To me the funniest part is how people can get so carried away about something that is costing them, at most, $1 a week – yet they are prepared to splurge tens of dollars a week on crap.

If people really are going to get bent out of shape over $1 a week, then one wonders why only 120 people a day are leaving for Oz where they can earn, on average, an extra $500 a week.

Surely there should be many more people worried over $500/week than $1/week. But, I suppose, people are far from rational.
10 2
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August 19, 2025 12:19pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Similar to the mindless hysteria about Elon Musk and DOGE.
  People in the US used this as an excuse to act out violence in the streets, burn cars and trash dealerships because – Trump.
  The world was coming to an end because some rich guy who made cars accepted a 4-6 week US government contract to investigate ways of cutting public overspending.
  Never going to buy or drive a Tesla vehicle evaaaaa again.
  Lol.
  
  10 0
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  August 19, 2025 12:42pm
- MCōs
  
  It’s not just butter that’s killing people’s budget, but it’s an example of problem.
  I’m off to the dentist tomorrow with a sore tooth and the cost of a filling seems to be skyrocketing
  Rates and house insurance is escalating for a lot of people — and so on
  It’s relentless
  
  5 2
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  August 19, 2025 12:45pm
  - cmm
    
    I agree many costs are up which makes all the hand-wringing over butter doubly stupid.
    
    Rates and insurance are far outstripping inflation. Those are real things that Willis should have focused her efforts on if she really was interested in people’s money (as she said she was). Getting side tracked by the butter price was a silly waste of time.
    
    Far more important is to increase earnings where possible. We don’t have anything like the mineral resources that Australia has, but we tangle what few resources we do have in red tape.
    
    12 1
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    August 19, 2025 12:58pm
    - rockape
      
      We have a lot of resources but the left and environmentalist don’t want them used. Coal for 200 years, iron sands in the ocean, oil and gas, gold, rare earth minerals etc, I am sure others could add to that list.
      
      5 0
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      August 19, 2025 4:11pm
      - artemisia
        
        Low cadmium, low leachate phosphate fertiliser off Chatham Rise. Some rare earth minerals look like well worth extracting in the process. Company has been trying to get OK for years. Taken its expertise offshore now.
        
        5 0
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        August 19, 2025 4:19pm
- Paulus
  
  Did I not read that one major supermarket is dropping their price of Butter, as what is known as a Loss Leader.
  
  3 0
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  August 19, 2025 2:58pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Butter $2 cheaper, everything else 50c dearer, probably.
    
    2 0
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    August 19, 2025 3:32pm
- wsk12345
  
  $1 per week? Where does that cone from? We easily go through a pound of butter a week in a 2 person household (and half a litre of olive oil). Even so it’s a small amount in the context of the essential takeaway coffee and fast food that most seem to have mosr days.
  
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  August 19, 2025 3:33pm
Swifty

Ridiculously low sentencing:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360794940/targeted-retribution-patched-comancheros-member-and-nominee-jailed-revenge-plot-shooting

Organised, pre-planned shooting, meant to strike terror, gang initiated, firearms no doubt illegally held, shooting into homes, kids present etc etc.

We’re just not taking this stuff seriously enough.
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August 19, 2025 12:20pm
- Swifty
  
  Even more pathetic sentencing:
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360794270/gang-member-boasted-about-killing-social-media
  
  Stomping and kicking people in the head while they lie prone and defenceless causing their death is murder in my book.
  
  I wonder too, of all Maori victims of robbery, brutality, murder etc what proportion is carried out by fellow Maori?
  
  90-95%?
  
  What does that say?
  
  7 1
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  August 19, 2025 4:33pm
Ghost

This was a good interview. Forgiveness is the best path forward, otherwise it eats you up

7NEWS Spotlight goes inside one of Australia’s toughest maximum-security prisons for an unforgettable meeting between two men.

A father who lost his three children. And the man who killed them.
Samuel Davidson was three times over the legal alcohol limit, drug-affected and out of control when the ute he was driving mounted a footpath and mowed down seven children in the 2020 Oatlands tragedy that shocked the nation.

YouTube

Sad to read not long after this aired

Whānau of a four-year-old boy who died alongside his dad while the pair were going for ice cream say they are “struggling to comprehend a world without him”.

Hendrix-Hemi Te Rongomau King was killed alongside Braiden Timmins when they were hit by a ute in the Queensland city of Logan on Sunday.

Article
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August 19, 2025 12:36pm
- MCōs
  
  I remember reading about a guy who was executed in America after twenty or thirty years on death row.
  The family of his victim could never forgive the guy and thought witnesses his death would bring an end the years of bitterness they felt
  Didn’t work out that way.
  
  5 3
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  August 19, 2025 12:58pm
  - Ghost
    
    Yeah. You’ve got to put yourself first, and that means forgiving the person responsible, otherwise you hold on to emotions that do nothing but cause harm to your own health and relationships. It’s not easy, but it is easier to forgive than to hold on to the hate, anger, etc
    
    3 0
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    August 19, 2025 2:33pm
    - kiwikidsnz
      
      “… it is easier to forgive than to hold on to the hate, anger, etc”
      
      You may very well think that…
      
      2 2
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      August 19, 2025 7:05pm
      - Ghost
        
        I don’t think it, I know it.
        
        0 3
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        August 19, 2025 7:11pm
      - Ghost
        
        Post
        
        Ghost
        
        I’ve watched people live their life in anger. Seen it take a physical toll on their health when my brother passed. I chose to forgive the driver.
        
        Life is short, forgiving let me move on the best I could. We were best friends, he looked after me in a lot of ways, taught me emotions that I couldn’t grasp. Protected me. Someone took away a large part of me, forgiving means they can’t take anything else.
        
        2 0
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        August 19, 2025 8:35pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      Perhaps true in your experience but not in mine. Different people react differently (obviously).
      
      Aunt was tortured and murdered in Scotland in 1999 (details too horrific to be reported) and there’s no way we will ever forgive the fat deviant slob. Fighting every two years against his parole applications was more than worth it, particularly for the protection of the public (given he had attacked four people previously and managed to hoodwink the system to get away with it), and didn’t harm health or relationships.
      
      After 23 years he died in prison from Covid. So we’ve got the pandemic to thank for one thing at least.
      
      1 0
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      August 19, 2025 11:54pm
cmm

Teachers, who earn over $100k on average for a 9-month-a-year job, are whinging for more pay.

Perhaps they need to lift their game a bit and prove they are worth it.

76% of Year 8 kids are not up to standard in writing ability, and 61% are more than a year behind.

Of course that’s not all the fault of the teachers. They can only work with the raw materials they are given.

As kids use more and more electronic gadgets and consume more video etc, it is not at all surprising that writing ability is going down. However that’s happening globally, so we can’t just blame that.

On top of that we’re seeing an increase in school children for whom English is not a first language. That would probably set them back more.

But surely the worst thing they have to deal with are the kids that really do not care. USA is having an existential crisis over 25% of kids wagging school. Here it is 35% and we’re crowing about the improvement from 41% just two years back.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/education-minister-erica-stanford-makes-announcement-on-student-achievement/VMIVPPVYAZHXFLE7SVVC5LUZVQ/
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August 19, 2025 1:24pm
Ghost

Ah, who dug the hole? Not only dug it but left it full of land mines that will be exploding for years to come

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has accused Labour of “fiscal innumeracy” and a reckless approach to spending as the coalition comes under pressure from business leaders to do more to turn around the economy.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has fired back in turn, saying Willis should stop throwing mud and focus more on getting National out of the “very big hole” it has dug for itself.

Article
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August 19, 2025 1:53pm
Philview

I see Stuff is starting a rumour of Nicola Willis for PM. It has been opened for comments briefly and given their Lefty readers a chance to stick the boot in. The intellectual nuance of KB comments is on a different planet compared to the inferior arguments presented in Stuff’s comments.
11 1
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August 19, 2025 1:57pm
- Prince
  
  Pathetic effort by Stuff to return National to the Opposition benches and break up the Coalition.
  
  9 0
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  August 19, 2025 2:40pm
- Ghost
  
  Why blame stuff? The minister spoke about it in her stand up.
  
  1 8
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  August 19, 2025 2:46pm
- septic skeptic
  
  Would be typical succession planning for the Nats. Replace the damp squib that is Luxon with the “do nothing but spend and borrow” failure of a finance minister. The wets ensure National maintain a steady hand on the tiller en route to oblivion. Sadly, I think this government was the last chance to save New Zealand for the foreseeable future. Opportunity missed – LGTPM will complete the he puapua path to the ethno state next time they get in.
  
  7 5
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  August 19, 2025 3:32pm
Ghost

Awww, Trevor’s been replaced early…..

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/19/carnivals-over-peters-calls-mallards-early-exit-as-irish-ambassador/
16 0
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August 19, 2025 2:51pm
- Swifty
  
  Mallard plucked.
  
  12 0
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  August 19, 2025 2:57pm
- Paulus
  
  The Guinness here is not as good as Mallard has enjoyed at our expense in Ireland.
  How horrible to see him back here.
  
  15 0
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  August 19, 2025 3:01pm
  - AitchW
    
    Maybe he’ll go flatting with Ardern as live in baby sitter.
    
    5 0
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    August 19, 2025 5:43pm
- rouppe
  
  May he wallow in his mediocrity.
  
  14 0
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  August 19, 2025 3:31pm
- MCōs
  
  “(Winston) said no politicians should never (sic) be assigned to diplomatic roles.”
  Maybe they shouldn’t, but it happens all the time
  About a third of High Commissioners to London, at least, have not been career diplomats
  Winston appointed Annette King High Commissioner to Australia
  
  3 0
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  August 19, 2025 4:02pm
- Rumblestrip
  
  How the hell did Mallard keep bouncing from job to job while being hopelessly unsuited to the role and not liked by anyone, even his own colleagues?
  
  He lacked the temperament to be any kind of diplomat. He lacked the temperament to be Speaker of the House.
  
  I hope to God he doesn’t think his next calling is the position of Governor General!
  
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  August 19, 2025 4:11pm
Ghost

I think this could be a strike that New Zealanders get behind and support

Staff at media company Stuff have voted to take strike action.

Article

Please strike for as long as you need, a month, a year, a few years. We will stand behind you making this the longest strike in New Zealand history. We will encourage you to not settle.
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August 19, 2025 3:03pm
imalwaysright

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/19/auckland-couple-try-to-board-train-with-trolley-of-stolen-groceries/

Its hard to believe this is NZ.

““Police staff at Pukekohe Police Station gave her a food parcel to help, given the circumstances,” he said.

While waiting for the man, the woman left the station before returning an hour later.

“At this time, she was allegedly observing carrying yet more stolen food,” Hoyes said.”
9 0
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August 19, 2025 3:49pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Maybe it looked like she might be missing a sandwich?
  
  2 0
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  August 19, 2025 10:53pm
Swifty

It’s been quite a revelation to me how much US taxpayer money has been, for decades, flowing out to political interest groups under the guise of ‘aid’ or ‘the arts’ or ‘community cohesion’ or ‘safety’ etc.

The recent scandal of USAID has just confirmed that, in spades – politicians and bureaucrats divert large sums of taxpayer money for their own partisan and political purposes.

It’s just outright corruption.

Unfortunately it is present here in NZ. Here is just the merest taste:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j-RMOjFppbI&pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv

I’ve not the time this afternoon to write all I think about this – but sufficient to say the whole thing sickens me.

Doubly so when people like Grant Robertson dress this corruption up as ‘funding for essential public services that Kiwis need and want….’

When it comes to politicians and bureaucrats using taxpayer money for political advocacy I don’t think the average New Zealander has the faintest clue how deep the rot and stench goes.
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August 19, 2025 4:20pm
Swifty

Labour should be ashamed. They are useless.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWYldw29K4o&pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv

Their definition of good government is how much money is spent in it not the results achieved.

The fact that they’re not lashed by our news media just shows how deep the corruption and rot goes.
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August 19, 2025 6:33pm
Philview

Will the Supreme Court lose more credibility by ruling in favour of David Tamihere? Another tikanga decision perhaps.
0 1
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August 19, 2025 6:35pm
- quarterpack
  
  I am intrigued by the media using the pharse “in a quest to clear his name” Tamahere was convicted previous to the backpacker murders of beating his girlfriend to death, breaking and entering and rape. Perhaps the phase “partially cleansing his name” would be a better fit.
  
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  August 25, 2025 3:01pm

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