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September 15, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 September 2025

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General Debate

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cmm

Am I the only one that thinks teachers are far too up themselves?

50 years ago, teachers were top-tier professionals. The clever people in the town just one rung down from the doctor and such.

Now teachers are those that can’t even master the stuff they are supposedly teaching.

Strike away people, kids can learn as much, even more, by watching youtube videos.
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September 15, 2025 8:07am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  “If the Minister ignores us this week, Bruvers, we’ll double the strike next week!”
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:11am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Never mind – it’s school holidays next week……
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:17am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      You’re far too clever to be a teacher Union rep, Greybeard!
      
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      September 15, 2025 10:39am
  - kowtow
    
    Er, that would be Sisters.
    
    Big part of the problem these days.
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:43am
- Southern Raider
  
  And no disregard for working parents. Have strike days is bad enough, but doing them year by year could mean many parents are then impacted across multiple days.
  
  Also teaching must be the safest profession from job security perspective and been offered multiple increases over last few years, yet the parents are probably battling to find work or haven’t had increases for a couple of years.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:16am
  - kowtow
    
    Yep a very ‘out of touch’ ‘profession’.
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:45am
  - Spam
    
    Note that they’re drip-feeding the strike notices for each year, to give the minimum notice period required.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:35am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Teachers have become imbued with Entitleitis.
      I think the Govt. should simply say, ” The offer is on the table, take it or leave it. You are a failed collective with education of our children dropping below what is acceptable for years now. When you prove you can earn an increase, come back to us. In the meantime, your pay is stopped. Strike away.”
      
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      September 15, 2025 10:56am
  - cmm
    
    “And no disregard for working parents.”
    
    Unfortunately you are right on the money.
    
    Many, perhaps most, parents just see school as daycare. They will mostly pick the most convenient school because they are not really that worried about the educational elements of schooling.
    
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    September 15, 2025 3:02pm
    - Spam
      
      And some, who live in cities with only one or two options, will pick the best, but still find that it is a bit shit.
      
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      September 15, 2025 3:33pm
  - Paulus
    
    I believe that outside what the fiasco is all about Teachers automatically get an annual step increase anyway – I may be wrong but $5,000 is suggested automatically.
    
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    September 15, 2025 3:51pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      The wonders of AI 🙂
      
      https://chatgpt.com/share/68c798b9-c428-800d-a74a-c1694b12abda
      
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      September 15, 2025 4:44pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Boagers, what’s that link all about?
        
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        September 15, 2025 6:13pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        That’s teacher pay scales ….
        
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        September 15, 2025 6:35pm
- pdm
  
  Good to hear this morning from a text to Mike Hosking that some (sensible) teachers in Christchurch have left the Union and will not be striking.
  
  If I remember correctly they said that pupils need to be at school this week to learn because they had important exams coming up.
  
  Unionists like Abercrombie could not give a stuff about things like that.
  
  Am I wrong in saying that his main role is to maximise funds to hand over to the Labour party to fund their next Election campaign.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:18am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    And these non-striking teachers will decline whatever settlement the union gets. They can just write to gummint and request that their pay should be whatever the first offer was 🙂
    
    Yeah right
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:32am
    - Nukuleka
      
      That’s the problem with collective agreements, isn’t Ian. Those not participating in the strikes are likely to be the more able, more principled and more committed teachers, the very ones who should be paid more than many of the selfish incompetents who don’t give a toss about the education of their pupils and are happy to go on strike and disrupt their educational opportunities.
      
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      September 15, 2025 9:49am
      - Ian Boag
        
        more principled
        
        Sure. Just not sufficiently principled to decline whatever settlement is arrived at by their (unprincipled) peers. 🙂
        
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        September 15, 2025 11:28am
    - Taieri
      
      And these non-striking teachers will decline whatever settlement the union gets
      ————-
      
      Just as you, being a man of principle, decline your National Super Ian…
      
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      September 15, 2025 5:02pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        you, being a man of principle
        
        Wot? Where did I claim to be a man of principle?
        
        The system is dumb. I should not be getting a benefit. I can so I take it.
        
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        September 15, 2025 5:18pm
  - Clyde
    
    I’m aware of a secondary school teacher in the Hutt area – biology I believe – that simply sits in the front of the class and tells the students to look at videos. Completely useless to the point that FINALLY the school reponds and brings in a replacement, retired teacher who has said that there isn’t enough time left in the year to get the kids who have been ignored up to the standard that they should be at.
    
    Question. Has the incompetent teacher been sacked? Of course not. Does the incompetent teacher get the same pay as a functioning teacher? Of course, because ALL teachers are equal according to the cursed teacher unions. Does the education sector really care that they have failed this class of willing students? Not on your Nellie.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:45am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Serious stuff. That’s one. Got any more?
      
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      September 15, 2025 6:29pm
      - Clyde
        
        Yes I have. And all based in the Hutt area.
        
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        September 15, 2025 10:11pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  An observation regarding the Phillips case. The Minister of Police described Phillips as a monster. I suggest this was code to confirm the rumours without breaching the injuction.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:06am
  - john1234
    
    It is hard not to read it that way, isn’t it?
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:07am
- Foxfour
  
  “50 years ago,[secondary] teachers were top-tier professionals. The clever people in the town just one rung down from the doctor and such.”
  
  And back in that time were paid similar to MPs
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:33am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Some teachers are worth more and some aren’t. But we can’t pay them accordingly. Collective contracts and pay parity are the reason we retain mediocre teachers and lose good ones.
  
  But you are right about the average quality. The IT industry especially has scooped up a lot of smart people who might have become teachers 50 years ago.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:34am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agree NK.
    A very good teacher is worth $200K+.
    A bad teacher does incalculable damage.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:10am
    - NeonTeepee
      
      Depends on the kid.
      
      A bad teacher can be the wakeup call a talented kid needs for them to realise it’s actually on them (not the teacher) to figure out how stuff works. Once a kid clicks to this they go up several gears.
      
      Not all kids benefit the same way and sadly, there are no shortage of useless teachers in NZ.
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:41am
      - imalwaysright
        
        The clue is in the title… Teacher
        
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        September 15, 2025 1:42pm
  - Paulus
    
    Am I not right but we learned some years ago under fine Education Minister Trevor Mallard who made a right balls of it, that there were some 10,000 salary permutations in Teachers pay each school having its own generally retitree because they understood the different fiddles involved
    Did that ever change despite trying ?
    I understand that some 105,000 Education wage packets all year, are paid out each fortnight throughout that year.
    With some 50,000 to teachers ?
    
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    September 15, 2025 4:00pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  I largely agree with you, however, while youtube has lots of excellent educational content it also has a great deal of utter rubbish.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:55am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “while youtube has lots of excellent educational content it also has a great deal of utter rubbish”
    
    Yes, it has lots of excellent educational content. We can’t be defeatist, the ministry should employ some of their 4000+ staff to mine YouTube for the best content and feed it to the schools through an intranet.
    
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    September 15, 2025 1:44pm
  - cmm
    
    Sure. I am not at all advocating that people just watch youtube end-to-end and pretending that is education.
    
    The same could be said for the library too. Some excellent material and some complete dross.
    
    However, if a person is inclined to learn (ie. wants to and has sufficient self discipline) they can learn everything they need from youtube from primary to university level.
    
    eg Kahn Academy for maths: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=khan+academy+math
    
    If you have an aversion to Indian, there are thousands of others. Add $50 of books from Whitcoulles (or borrowed from the library) and you have everything you need for a solid education.
    
    The best bit is that you can the same thing taught many different ways. Struggle with understanding the Kahn way of doing long division? No problem – there are another 200 examples.
    
    We homeschooled our kids. They didn’t spend a day in school. We didn’t have proper internet for most of that, but did get a few maths courses on CD to supplement books etc. Both ended up with tech degrees.
    
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    September 15, 2025 3:25pm
    - Northshoredoc
      
      I didn’t homeschool any of my children or them their children.
      
      Fortunately, they all attended excellent (public) schools with mostly excellent teachers, pastoral care and governance.
      
      To suggest that a large proportion of children in NZ can be educated via youtube is unrealistic.
      
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      September 15, 2025 5:58pm
- Jigsaw
  
  cmm – I’m and ex-teacher (albeit some time ago) and I most certainly agree with you. As for putting Abecrombie up as the spokesperson – they must be crazy to think he has any appeal at all.
  
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  September 15, 2025 11:32am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Apparently, it’s Maori language week.

I would have said that it’s been peak Maori language week for years.
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September 15, 2025 8:09am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  I rember about 5 years ago there was a maori language week that started and it never finished.
  
  I’m so sick of it.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:13am
  - NeonTeepee
    
    Nothing puts people off something faster than shoving it down their throats, unrequested and in a patronising way.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:43am
- imalwaysright
  
  Its going to take them longer than a week…
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:31am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Certainly the Te Reo thing has been promoted hard for 40 or so years by the lefties embedded in the institutions. Yet only 3% of NZs (part) Maori speak it on a regular basis? What does that tell us?
  
  I think let each person decide what cultural and language studies they want to do in their own time and on their own dime. English works. Why make things more complicated? We have far more pressing issues to deal with in NZ.
  
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  September 15, 2025 6:21pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

So, I’m to have my pocket picked so that Taylor Swift can line hers.

Sod that.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/573038/nz-back-in-the-game-for-showstopper-events-music-promoter
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September 15, 2025 8:09am
- imalwaysright
  
  Sounds like something Ardern would do to give her music mates some of our cash.
  
  They could have achieved a better result by loosening regulations for promoters and allowing longer concerts and more frequent events.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:00am
- cmm
  
  “thanks to a $40 million funding package from the government.”
  
  Ummm, no. From the TAXPAYER. The government has no money.
  
  If you crank the numbers it looks like a state subsidy of around $100 to $200 per ticket sold. That’s disgusting – especially from National – the so-called grown ups in the room.
  
  Sure, on a percentage basis, the subsides are worse for buses and trains, but at least those are providing useful transport – not just hedonistic distractions.
  
  Spending $75M to generate $33.7 of local spending makes sense to these people.
  
  I thought Luxon was supposed to be a businessman?
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:01am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “Spending $75M to generate $33.7 of local spending makes sense to these people.”
    
    To a bureaucrat that is a 45% return on investment…
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:05am
    - NeonTeepee
      
      And maybe a corporate box ticket for the right bureaucrats
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:45am
  - Taieri
    
    I thought Luxon was supposed to be a businessman?
    ———
    
    He’s a manager, not a businessman.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:09am
    - mogg
      
      He is a businessman who is up for reelection next year.
      
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      September 15, 2025 2:42pm
    - Paulus
      
      And a good manager but the media would have us believe otherwise.
      He delegates and expects the managers to perform.
      
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      September 15, 2025 4:03pm
  - Inandout
    
    cmm, I have reached the conclusion that Luxon is corporate to the teeth. He can spend our money on feel good ventures but hasn’t the intestinal fortitude to order the Harbour Bridge to remain open. He says that he leaves those decisions up to NZTA. He is the Prime Minister for God’s sake.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:17am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Well said Inandout.
      Luxon is a yes man. If he is wrong it is someone else’s fault.
      Forever National but National are going to lose my vote if Luxon’s attitude to NZ does not change. He has become up himself – and will walk away smiling.
      
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      September 15, 2025 5:56pm
  - nova
    
    The revenue these events bring in is largely domestic revenue. The people who buy tickets will predominately be NZers. The economic benefit to the country is largely that by having the events here, a few thousand people who might have gone to Australia to see the show will see it here, keeping the money in NZ. Otherwise, it is just a subsidy to foreign artists.
    
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    September 15, 2025 1:52pm
    - cmm
      
      Quite. The argument that an event creates economic activity is rather hollow.
      
      If someone has $500 in their pockets and doesn’t blow it on a concert then they will just spend it elsewhere in the economy – for the most part. Thus $33M of “created” activity is just another $33M of activity wiped out elsewhere.
      
      What we have is even worse. Some poor sod (say a baker in Ashburton) is paying more tax, and having his business made more marginal, to subsidize people going to watch Taylor Swift in Auckland.
      
      But, hey, Luxon is now Twitter-besties with Taylor Swift so that’s got to count for something.
      
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      September 15, 2025 2:27pm
AitchW

The hypocrisy of the union is quite breathtaking.
They claim to be taking this action, at least in part, for the good of their students.
Let me see if I’ve got this right. They’re taking a day off, only weeks before external exams, for the good of the students. Makes perfect sense.
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September 15, 2025 8:13am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Indeed, can’t recall them strike during school holidays or ‘teachers only’ days.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:56am
- leoj
  
  Do teachers not understand that student performance is rapidly declining yet the teachers want more pay.
  
  The union is the problem as are all unions.
  
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  September 15, 2025 11:11am
  - artemisia
    
    Let us not forget that parents also have responsibilities. Like making sure their kids get out of bed and head to school. And talk to them at tea time about their school day.
    
    Unless they don’t care about them and their future. Can’t fix stupid.
    
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    September 15, 2025 12:47pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      I see your point Artemisia, but teachers are supposedly trained to teach.
      That means to especially teach the unmotivated as well as the motivated.
      We can’t keep excusing bad teachers on the strength of unmotivated students or parents.
      
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      September 15, 2025 2:00pm
      - cmm
        
        The point is surely that in the same schools/classes where Maori and PI do poorly, Asians still do well.
        
        You can hardly blame the teachers for Maori/PI high school outcomes when 90% of them fail to turn up on a regular basis.
        
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        September 15, 2025 3:32pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        CMM – the reason they are not turning up is because of those lousy school lunches of David Seymour. If the schools provided a really great lunch those kids would be doing much better.//
        
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        September 15, 2025 9:19pm
  - Paulus
    
    It would appear that the teachers are in sympathy with the Unions currently and is getting worse.
    
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    September 15, 2025 4:05pm
fightingtemeraire

Years ago I used to attend Teacher’s Conferences. I found the younger ones to be pretty thick.
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September 15, 2025 8:13am
- lifesgood
  
  I was at university, having lectures at Epsom Teachers College. The minister of education paid them a visit while I was there. When I mentioned it to a teacher trainee she replied “Did ya give him the fingers” I ask you. Those types are teaching our kids.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:33am
  - NothingLeft
    
    To be fair most uni students are extremely ignorant/clueless with next to zero understanding of how the world works – having been stuck in school all their lives. You need a few years out in the world looking after yourself and real issues of life to develop some wisdom
    
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    September 15, 2025 1:50pm
Chuck Bird

Groundswell is bringing out Dr Will Happer, climate scientist to New Zealand in early December. He is different than many of his colleagues. He believes that there are positive benefits to more CO2 and moderate warming. More CO2 will help green the planet. A moderate warming will mean fewer deaths from extreme weather as far more people die from extreme cold than extreme heat.

Dr William Happer | Sky News Australia | Outsiders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAru7zliB0g&t=2s

The link below describes his achievements:

https://co2coalition.org/teammember/william-happer/

Basically, he is a real scientist with a very impressive scientific career.

How many here would pay $50 to hear Dr Happer in person to help cover the cost of bring him to NZ?
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September 15, 2025 8:16am
- cmm
  
  “More CO2 will help green the planet”
  
  That is not speculation. That is already happening and has been observed for a good couple of decades.
  
  The science behind is it pretty basic and should be obvious to anyone that did primary school biology.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:23am
  - Handyman
    
    Correct. It is easy to see with satellite images.
    People who know nothing about plant biochemistry attribute early harvests to global warming but actually it is increasing CO2 that is driving plant growth.
    
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    September 15, 2025 8:41am
  - gravedodger
    
    The Carbon Cycle I am guessing you refer to cmm will have been removed from the curriculum to create space for Mātauranga Māori science.
    Any such reference to benefits from CO2 cannot remain in the “what to think” current education “modelling”
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:01am
    - Foxfour
      
      Too late.
      Ruminants who eat grass and thus are zero carbon have become ‘polluters’.
      
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      September 15, 2025 9:37am
      - NeonTeepee
        
        Carbon based lifeforms like cows, sheep and pigs soak up more carbon, the bigger they get. Then, when I eat them, the carbon is gone and can no longer cause global warming. So, eating meat saves the planet, as well as solves the middle east crisis 😉
        
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        September 15, 2025 11:49am
    - cmm
      
      One of the main factors is understanding how the pores on leaves work: something taught in primary school biology (at least when I was at school anyway – maybe it is now PhD level).
      
      Leaves have pores (stomata) in them to let the CO2 in. These are guarded with cells which can open and close as the plant needs.
      
      Unfortunately, when the pores are open, they also allow water to escape. This water loss is problematic for plants in dry areas.
      
      With higher CO2 levels, the plants can achieve the same amount of CO2 transfer with less pores open and therefore less water loss.
      
      Therefore higher CO2 levels allow plants to grow in drier areas. Therefore greening of desert margins.
      
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      September 15, 2025 10:33am
  - R
    
    Don’t teach science in Primary school anymore, haven’t done for years
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:17am
    - cmm
      
      Really? That’s a shame.
      
      We did experiments with photosynthesis (including boiling leaves in alcohol to extract chlorophyll etc) with a basic overview of CO2, transpiration and starches etc.
      
      These were repeated in high school in Year 9 on a more scientific basis (ie. not just looking at the chemistry but also the energy balances etc).
      
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      September 15, 2025 10:40am
      - Paulus
        
        No time too may other things to take up hours
        How to do a Haka is the first term in Primary Schools.
        
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        September 15, 2025 4:06pm
    - Foxfour
      
      Dont teach science in Primary Schools? Thats news to the teachers as this is the Curriculum
      Over the course of years 1–10, your local science curriculum should include learning in all four context strands.
      
      Nature of science – the unifying strand; what science is and how scientists work
      Living world – living things and how they interact with each other and the environment
      Planet earth and beyond – interconnecting systems and the earth’s subsystems
      Physical world – physical entities such as light, sound, heat, waves, force, and motion
      Material world – matter and its changes; includes chemistry
      
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      September 15, 2025 12:38pm
      - cmm
        
        … and you forgot the most important part…. Māori knowledge.
        
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        September 15, 2025 2:32pm
      - R
        
        Foxfour, the operative word is in your second paragraph….SHOULD. Your list has no substance for a curriculum, it’s basically a dream list waiting for expansion.
        
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        September 15, 2025 4:51pm
      - Simon Arnold
        
        but that exemplifies the problem. None of that is doing science, as I read it.
        
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        September 15, 2025 7:43pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    If only it was that simple ..
    
    https://chatgpt.com/share/68c74d49-b3e4-800d-a0a1-a24064a0357a
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:20am
    - Jigsaw
      
      Forever the pessimist! There is no evidence whatever that CO2 causes more than the slightest increase in temperature. None of the dire predictions that I have been reading since the 1970’s have come true and indeed they have all proved to be wildly wrong. Quote me an example of a dire prediction that has come true……just one.
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:42am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Dunno. I just asked what are the two sides of the story and got what seemed to me to be a reasonably balanced reply.
        
        Also AFAICT an increase in photosynthesis is accompanied by an increase in transpiration (water loss) which in dry areas is not a good thing.
        
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        September 15, 2025 12:10pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘The effect of CO2 on the amount of water plants use may be more important than the primary effect on photosynthesis. Plants tend to close their leaf pores slightly under elevated levels of CO2, leading to water savings. In certain (dry) areas, this may indeed lead to more plant growth.’
        
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        September 15, 2025 12:25pm
      - cmm
        
        Ian, the increase in transpiration is due to the plants having to open their stomata to gather more CO2. In higher CO2 concentrations they do not need to open stomata as much to get the same amount of CO2 and therefore score by retaining water.
        
        Water is consumed by photosynthesis:
        6CO₂ + 6H₂O → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂
        
        Water is not a waste product of the photosyntetic process.
        
        Transpiration is UNDESIRABLE water loss through stomata – a major reason why plants evolved guard cells to close the stomata when they are not needed and thus preserve water (eg. at night).
        
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        September 15, 2025 2:40pm
- cmm
  
  The age of international travel to go to meetings is dead.
  
  Just put a video up on youtube. Job done.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:34am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Dr Happer is coming to NZ. The arrangement has been made. Would you pay to see him if the venue were near you?
    
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    September 15, 2025 8:41am
    - cmm
      
      Nope, not even if it was 2km away. But I would watch the video.
      
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      September 15, 2025 8:45am
      - cmm
        
        Let me clarify:
        Nope, not even if it was 2km away and FREE. But I would watch the video.
        
        I have nothing against Dr Happer, but this is not the 1980s any more. Very few people will go out – let alone spend $50 – to watch someone speak on a subject that has been done to death.
        
        If you want to make your message accessible, make a video.
        
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        September 15, 2025 8:54am
    - Phronesis
      
      The irony of climate change is that the science IS largely settled. People like Happer are correct, always have been. The real question now is how did we end up in the political shit show of AGW that is bringing down the West, and how do we get out of it. It’s mostly economists that we need now to make the case that the costs of what we are doing far outweigh the benefits.
      
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      September 15, 2025 9:30am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Phronesis: “The real question now is how did we end up in the political shit show of AGW that is bringing down the West…”
        
        Lynne Balzer: “Dirty roots of the climate scam” | Tom Nelson Pod #326
        https://rumble.com/v6x9x8a-lynne-balzer-dirty-roots-of-the-climate-scam-tom-nelson-pod-326.html?e9s=src_v1_s%2Csrc_v1_s_m
        
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        September 15, 2025 8:04pm
    - cmm
      
      I assume all the people disagreeing with me are going to stump up $50 to go watch him speak. Good on you.
      
      Since Luxon can find $75 million under the couch to spend on Taylor Swift concerts, maybe he can find $5k to bring the fine Dr Happer to NZ?
      
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      September 15, 2025 10:07am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        People are paying $149 to hear Oprah Winfrey in the cheap seats. Dr Harper is already on YouTube, but some people are happy to pay and maybe ask questions. He may challenge climate alarmists, Luxon and Watts to a debate. He will likely be on The Country with Jamie McKay. Do you donate to any causes you support?
        
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        September 15, 2025 10:37am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I’d definitely pay 50 bucks to listen to Happer.
        
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        September 15, 2025 8:06pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  I have already heard Will Happer on YouTube and other sources plus read his evidence as presented to various courts. I don’t need to go along but I would certainly be prepared to support them with $50.
  
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  September 15, 2025 1:53pm
Southern Raider

Sam Stubbs from Simplicity KiwiSaver saver seems to have doubled down on full woke by having a public crack at Charlie Kirk and hoping “his ideas die with him”.
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September 15, 2025 8:17am
- imalwaysright
  
  People like him should be asked if they agree with someone being murdered for speaking, and would they pull the trigger themselves?
  
  They are sad pathetic individuals.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:05am
  - All_on_Red
    
    ‘People like him’ tend to be ignorant low information commentators because they believe whats in the Newspaper
    Luxon and co are the same- especially on things like Climate Science.
    
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    September 15, 2025 12:27pm
  - Foxfour
    
    Have you seen some of the crazy things Kirk would say, like saying gun deaths are worth it to have 2nd amendment.
    Hello pot meet kettle
    Actual words…
    ‘“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said.
    
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    September 15, 2025 12:41pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Foxfour, why don’t you then subjugate yourself to the general population,and the government, and let us all decide what you do tomorrow?
      
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      September 15, 2025 1:34pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Gun deaths are most definitely worth it as they stop countries falling under repressive totalitarian control – which killed about 100 million out of a population of a billion or two in the 20th century. ~5-10% of population vs the .005% gun homicides (primarily crim-on-crim illicit drug industry related so not a great loss) in USA.
      
      Assuming a century long time scale it’s something like 1:10 cost benefit in terms of lives lost for lives saved.
      
      The way things are headed at the moment with rise of govt repression and anarcho-tyranny in western democracies I would be in favour of wide availability of guns for average folk, as we are coming close to a point where the Fascistic left are likely to take over due to economic collapse (populations Venezuelanizing themselves) and will then start murdering people en mass as they inevitably do as their megalomaniacal socio/psychopaths start doing what they do when the leash comes off.
      
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      September 15, 2025 1:56pm
    - Local Miller
      
      Citation needed. Saying “Actual words…” is meaningless unless you have a link to Charlie actually using the words.
      But in a way he is correct. We have regular car deaths, but I don’t hear people calling for cars to be banned, because we accept that a consequence of the freedom and benefits that cars provide is that someone somewhere is going to get hit and killed somewhere. We have laws to try keep these to a minimum and to punish those who are responsible (in theory.)
      From that perspective we may need to accept that there will be some deaths associated with misuse of firearms, and put laws in place to keep these to a minimum and punish the perpetrators, but that doesn’t mean we condone or accept the deaths, it just means we recognize they will happen.
      
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      September 15, 2025 2:33pm
      - Foxfour
        
        Its all in quotes and they came from a very good source.
        Its his words on “some deaths are worth it” that are the issue not gun laws .
        
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        September 15, 2025 3:10pm
- Foxfour
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Political violence is wrong.
  Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit.
  Both of these things can be true at the same time.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:42am
  - Don Beckett
    
    So do you really think Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit???
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:06am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Agreed DB.
      And it begs the question, who does Ff consider to be a good guy?
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:55am
    - Foxfour
      
      Yeah.. its gross and this is just one them, using anti-semitic ideas. Despite saying he supports the “state’ of Israel.
      “Jews control … the colleges, the nonprofits, the movies, Hollywood, all of it”
      
      Kirk claimed that Jewish philanthropy funding American universities was effectively “subsidising your own demise ”
      
      ”The number one funding mechanism of radical, open border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions, and nonprofits” is “Jewish donors.”
      I could go on to pull apart the healthy debater meme. Whats good for him doesnt apply for others
      ‘He encouraged students and parents to REPORT professors whom they suspected of embracing what some on the right refer to as gender ideology.’
      
      and of course the real kicker when he calls gun deaths as ‘worth it’ ROFL
      
      “I think it’s WORTH to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said.
      
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      September 15, 2025 12:30pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        I’ll give Kirk credit for his open discussion of Jewish influence in American institutions in general, and Zionist influence over American foreign policy in particular, in the final months of his life.
        
        Kirk was for years always somewhat of a shill for the GOP Zionist billionaires funding Turning Point for years. But recently, he is on record as openly questioning whether America’s unconditional support and funding of Israel was a good thing, apparently even counseling Trump against bombing Iran.
        
        One suspects that the wholesale rejection of US support for Israel among the younger demographic over which Kirk had such influence meant that Kirk could himself no longer turn the other cheek to the reality of the situation, if he wanted to remain credible.
        
        Notably, despite Kirk’s recent public cooling towards Israel, since his unfortunate murder last week, Bibi Netanyahu has been among the first, the loudest and the most conspicuous voices lionising Kirk as some kind of pro-Zionist matyr. What Charlie Kirk would have to say about this framing, if he could, is very much an open question.
        
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        September 15, 2025 2:01pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Almost all of those points are demonstrably correct (backed by data). The Marxist indoctrination factories that are academia are incrementally destroying the west with the conflict-victimology mindset excusing all sorts of overt bigotry now seen in woke adherents. I’m not sure if their donors are mostly jewish, but given how remarkably successful the have been in business as a culture it seems likely that they will be the source for a lot of donations made to academia – but I don’t think it’s causative – the Jewishness is incidental to the luxury beliefs and signaling behaviours of the ultra-wealthy.
        
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        September 15, 2025 2:08pm
- Dougal10
  
  One can only hope that this is sam stubbs’s Bud Lite moment, and he gets sued by other kiwi saver providers for not keeping politics out of business
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:13am
  - Ghost
    
    Free speech is a beautiful thing. You might not agree with what he says but do you really want to lose your right to free speech? Should the people who wrote stupid things when Efeso Collins died also get sued?
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:26am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “Free speech is a beautiful thing.”
      
      Correct. Without it we have nothing.
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:16am
      - Foxfour
        
        “I think it’s WORTH to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,”
        Charlie Kirk on gun rights. he was just another demagogue who sounds good on TV
        
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        September 15, 2025 12:34pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        [Mod – debate the topic]
        
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        September 15, 2025 1:23pm
    - Local Miller
      
      No, he doesn’t need to get sued, but just as free speech is a beautiful thing, so to is the right to take my business where I want to. I rather hope people who don’t like Sam Stubbs’ opinions will vote with their feet and take their money elsewhere.
      
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      September 15, 2025 2:40pm
      - Ghost
        
        The same is currently happening in the USA. Democrat supporters are leaving the party because of how others reacted to this murder.
        
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        September 15, 2025 3:04pm
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    A note for those of you with Simplicity.
    I have found the Generate Funds Managers to be very proficient and sensible.
    
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    September 15, 2025 3:25pm
  - Paulus
    
    Watch the pull out of his unbrilliant KiwiSaver.
    
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    September 15, 2025 4:09pm
- Mod88
  
  Sam Stubbs appears to be walking it back very rapidly. Too Late. Leftys need to learn consequences happen. Transfers from Simplicity are happening. I await the floodgates opening with glee. Suck it up Sam, you Asked For It.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:42am
- Notsofast
  
  Not much of a leap to wishing Islamic ideas die with Islamists.
  I don’t think Dutta or Stubbs would risk that one.
  Charlie Kirk at least had a coherent and benign way of seeing the world, which sets him apart from Islamists.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:42am
- Chuck Bird
  
  https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/ethical-kiwisaver-boss-faces-backlash-over-ignorant-charlie-kirk-comment/
  
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  September 15, 2025 11:18am
Cassandra

Trump has written to NATO saying that he’ll impose war-ending sanctions on Russia when Europe stops buying Russian oil and gas and sanctions those whch do. Dig in for a long war.
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September 15, 2025 8:18am
- Scott
  
  Cassandra – yes it’s an important development –
  
  “US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, but only if Nato countries meet certain conditions which include stopping buying Russian oil.
  
  In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said he was “ready to do major sanctions on Russia” once Nato nations had “agreed, and started, to do the same thing”.
  
  Trump has repeatedly threatened tougher measures against Moscow, but has so far failed to take any action when the Kremlin ignored his deadlines and threats of sanctions.
  
  He described the purchases of Russian oil as “shocking” and also suggested that Nato place 50 to 100% tariffs on China, claiming it would weaken its “strong control” over Russia.”
  
  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62zxp1y5lwo.amp
  
  I think this is a good strategy from Trump. Europe needs to do its part to stop Russian aggression. Stop buying Russian oil and gas and moving against China with tariffs would be a huge move by the NATO countries. It would also show that they are serious. The NATO countries say all the right things but will they actually step out and do something to curtail Russian aggression and stop the war?
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:32am
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Trump is still glum that his military parades are a joke compared to his role models and he’s not in on the group chat about living until you’re 150.
    
    Sad!
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:02am
    - Don Beckett
      
      [Mod – debate the topic]
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:08am
  - NothingLeft
    
    The oil and gas purchase thing is mostly bollocks as they are fungible – any source of oil or gas can replace any other, so in the end all this does is create more circuitous and less efficient transport routes for the same oil and gas production to reach the same oil and gas users.
    
    But it might be able to cut into the price the Russians receive as a cost for creating more unscrupulous the middle-men in the oil distribution game – and that will be of benefit.
    
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    September 15, 2025 2:12pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Not sure it will be a long war if Russia cant produce Oil/Gas to sell.
  I think ‘Nothing Left’ is correct about Ukrainian Drones having the ability to destroy Russia Oil and Gas economy,
  https://nypost.com/2025/09/14/world-news/ukrainian-drones-strike-a-russian-top-oil-refinery-sparks-fire/
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:32am
  - Mod88
    
    New Gas/Oil pipeline has just been completed from Russia to China. That is where Europe’s supplies will go and they will have to buy from the US at much higher prices. All that Gas & Oil has to come by sea. Things are going to get very interesting.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:49am
    - All_on_Red
      
      I think its agreed but not sure it is completed- or even started.
      https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/power-of-siberia-2-russia-signs-new-gas-pipeline-deal-with-china.html
      Besides, it will just provide another target for Ukraine.
      
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      September 15, 2025 12:30pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Refinery destruction will screw the general economy with cars more sensitive to fuel quality, but fractionating oil into low quality diesel and petrol is very easy 150yr old low tech, not that hard to improvise or repair to keep things functioning at reduced quality (eg not eliminating suphur and not optimally re-forming short or long chain hydrocarbons into useful gasoline and diesel length alkanes and alkenes).
    
    Storage and transport of fuel is more critical. pipelines in particular are a big deal for vastness of Russia and could produce massive impacts, as is wrecking port and port adjacent refinery facilities to export income of Russia.
    
    I expect truck train and military transport to be little impacted, but personal transport and exports will suffer badly perhaps enough to sink Russian economy.
    
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    September 15, 2025 2:22pm
- Wandering Star
  
  Do you mean like the first set of “war ending sanctions” that Russia easily coped with and that actually even negatively impacted America, not the least in undermining it international credibility? Why shouldn’t countries have access to cheap Russian oil and gas if they want it – aren’t America actually punishing these countries, its alleged allies?
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:38am
- Handyman
  
  The hypocrites in the EU have given Russia more for oil than their total aid to Ukraine.
  Their response will be to call for another meeting of leaders and call for the US to provide more aid to Ukraine.
  I forget who said early in the conflict. “Europe is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian solider and the last American Dollar”.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:49am
  - kowtow
    
    ‘The hypocrites in the EU have given Russia more for oil than their total aid to Ukraine.’
    
    And the hypocrtical media only headline that when Trump talks about it.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:35am
  - NothingLeft
    
    It makes no difference due to fungibility of oil and gas so long as Russia has a market for their production somewhere. It will only increase the amount of travel that the oil and gas undergoes to reach the same consumers.
    
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    September 15, 2025 2:24pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  There’s no such thing as “Russian oil”. If some countries stop buying oil from Russia and buy from the Middle East instead, other countries will just buy more from Russia.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:41am
- Conservatarian
  
  “How dare this foreign invader enter this country with a view to colonising it?” shrieks the political elite of an entire continent.
  “Slava Ukraini! Ukraine is for Ukrainians!”
  
  Meanwhile, the exact same political elite has for decades openly invited foreign invaders from the third world to enter their own country with a view to colonising it.
  
  “Diversity is our strength! Britain is not just for Britons! Germany is not just for Germans!”
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:44am
- MCōs
  
  “Trump will impose war-ending sanctions on Russia”
  So what happens if Europe does what he demands and he doesn’t impose war-ending sanctions?
  He might impose sanctions that make not a blind bit of difference like all the other sanctions imposed on Russia and the war just carries on.
  Where does that leave Europe?
  In the shit
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:49am
  - kowtow
    
    Europe leave themselves in the shit.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:36am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Trump has promised lots of things in relation to Russia and the war in Ukraine.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:58am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Yeah TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), he’s all mouth and no trousers. 2 more weeks, 2 more weeks, 2 more weeks etc..
    
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    September 15, 2025 2:26pm
cmm

Coroners really do have the Messiah Complex.

Woman falls off a towed sea biscuit and smacks into a pylon and gets killed.

Solution: more speed limit signs.

Right.

People driving dangerously on water are not really any different to those driving dangerously on roads. They ignore speed limits. They do stupid things.

The law already calls for a 5 knot limit when close to structure, shore or other craft or swimmers. People don’t tend to slow down for any of these.

She was killed at only 11 knots – slightly above the speed limit.

So demanding signs be put up might give the coroner some feel-good that they can do something, but in reality nothing will change.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/waitara-river-tragedy-calls-speed-limit-signs-after-tira-wilson-dies-in-jetski-accident/NP3HIGUVNNDGLPGSHEXA3MTB5A/
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September 15, 2025 8:20am
- Bullion
  
  120% above the speed limit Slightly over? Going from 9 to over 20km/h
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:53am
  - cmm
    
    There is a huge difference between going 20km/h in a 9km/h zone and 200 in a 100km/h zone.
    
    Nobody takes the 5 knot speed limit seriously. They slow down, maybe, but not to 5 knots.
    
    You have no doubt seen hundreds of cases of people exceeding 5 knots within 200m of structure or the shore. Same with people exceeding those speeds when close to other boats or when there are people in the water.
    
    I’ve frequently had dickheads zooming past within fly casting range.
    
    Bottom line is that laws that are not enforced are a waste of time.
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:46am
    - Bullion
      
      Its more the physics applied at impact ‐ 20kmh compared to 9kmh is a huge difference
      
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      September 16, 2025 11:46am
- Spam
  
  I think it is the mindset. There are investigation methodologies that attempt to look at immediate causes, and then trace them back to the root cause via asking a series of ‘why’ questions. But the structure of them almost invariably leads to a process gap.
  
  The theory sounds nice: a methodology to prevent incidents, that can be used in a “no-blame culture” or a “learning organisation”. What this really means is that no incident investigation will ever just find that the person was doing something dangerous, there must always be a reason for that. The premise is that no-one does anything dangerous, they simply didn’t know the risks, and therefore it is a process failure to inform them of the risks.
  
  Hence a speed-limit sign.
  
  The problem with this approach is that things get left in isolation. The “control” is made clear, but not the reason for the control.
  
  Why must you wear a hard-hat on a construction site? Because people are working above you, and might drop something. But you’re not told that: You’re told to wear a hard-hat, and because you aren’t told why, and because nothing ever happens, you think it is a waste of time. Same with a hi-vis vest etc.
  
  A plethora of procedures and signs does not keep people safe. In fact, it can make them less safe, because they aren’t thinking about the risks they’re exposed to.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:56am
  - gravedodger
    
    Where will things stand when every person is wearing Hi Vis everywhere?
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:05am
    - Spam
      
      Well, what happened is that roading contractors were just getting on with the job. Until one day, some moron drove past too fast. Bloody hell! Good thing that we had sensible workers who were aware of the risks, paid attention to traffic, and as a result had seen the aforementioned moron, and were quite safe. But as they are a “learning organisation”, they reported a “near-miss” (which should really be called a “near-hit”, but I digress…)
      
      So the near-miss is investigated. As I explained before, an investigation can’t just find that “the driver was a moron”. No! There must be a process failure, and under the HSSE in employment act, and employer must take all practicable steps to keep their employees safe.
      
      So, a change is made. Every time a worker is on the road, a temporary speed limit sign must be put up.
      
      Brilliant! The 99.9999% of non-moronic drivers see these signs, and slow down. The workers are “safer”, but because the traffic is now slower, they actually get a bit more complacent, and stop being so traffic aware.
      
      Then our moron drives past again. A near miss is reported and investigated. What? The speed limit sign didn’t work? They can’t have seen the workers. We must make all the workers wear hi-vis!
      
      This works great. A simple way of improving safety. The workers feel much safer, so they get more and more complacent. They don’t bother looking out for traffic anymore at all, because they feel bullet-proof in their vests.
      
      Until our moron comes back again.
      
      The next investigation steadfastly refuses to recognize either that their workers are no longer paying attention to their surroundings, nor that there are morons on the road. They therefore decide that “all practicable steps” means that they need to go beyond signs and hi-vis. They need road cones.
      
      Now the workers are feeling so exceedingly safe, that they are certain they don’t need to be aware of their surroundings at all. They can afford to sit on their phones watching tiktok instead of looking out for traffic.
      
      Until the moron comes back again.
      
      I sat in the investigation meeting. They’re hiring lobbyist to pester the worksafe minister to require all drivers to wear hi-vis. But wait there’s more: cars will have to be hi-vis, too.
      
      (Hope this helps. In the interests of brevity, I missed out the parts of the story where they made the workers write out a work permit, and where they kept adding new things to checklists, and where they made the workers go and get unit standard qualifications in hazard awareness and traffic management).
      
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      September 15, 2025 9:47am
      - rouppe
        
        The result of which is that when I recently drove from wellington to Palmerston north, an entire lane of the state highway was closed off, 1000 cones and three signage trucks, so that council workers could pick up rubbish on the other side of Armco barriers.
        
        Completely unnecessary expenditure.
        
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        September 15, 2025 10:04am
    - cmm
      
      Add flashing LEDs… and when everyone has those… add sirens…
      
      One company I worked for got a new HR directory in from UK and she banned people walking to the coffee shop down the road unless they wore a hi-viz and had training!
      
      That didn’t last too long.
      
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      September 15, 2025 9:49am
      - imalwaysright
        
        There is so much hi viz and cones that people have become desensitized to it.
        Orange is the new black.
        
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        September 15, 2025 10:11am
  - Skippytony
    
    I think the issue goes back to the cornerstone of H & S thinking. Basically, someone is always at fault. Either the procedure is wrong (Not enough speed control) or the operator is wrong (ignored the procedure).
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:38am
    - Spam
      
      Yes, but in a “no blame culture”, we can’t just say the operator is wrong; “we allowed him to Fail”. Which ALWAYS means that more controls are needed.
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:14am
- Phronesis
  
  The problem is that Coroners are all lawyers. No one ever died by accident in a lawyers office or court. They literally have zero relevant experience of any situation that anyone has ever died by accident. Even worse they operate under the delusion that laws mean something to the average person or have any material effect in the real world. You couldn’t really design a system that is more likely to produce the sort of retarded outcomes that our coronial system does.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:40am
artemisia

Tenant and blind mum must voluntarily leave Kainga Ora home or face eviction

Herald today. Well that sounds seriously cruel, but just maybe there is more to the story. And so it does seem. Social housing was provided years ago we can assume, as the three young children have now left home and tenant’s mother moved in 5 years ago.

A $10,000 taxpayer grant to start a new business was provided last year. These are usually available to long term beneficiaries. Whether that is the case we are not told, and not necessarily should be told. But dots joined. The tenant says there are existing mental health issues, this has caused my panic attacks to return with force and my depression as well , also supported by her GP. Not a robust starting point for a new business.

KO said it was doing everything it could to support Amanda and her mum into another Kāinga Ora home that met their specific needs. Then again, private renters get termination notices all the time, with no support to move and no offers of alternative (subsidised) accommodation.

As well as talking to the media the tenant has applied to the Tenancy Tribunal on the basis that KO is acting illegally.

(Family member on very long term dole got a generous business start up grant. All spent, no income ever received, back on the dole and remained so until age 65. But the WINZ clock restarted and the stats looked a little better. So there’s that.)
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September 15, 2025 8:21am
- cmm
  
  In 2002 or so I was at the Stihl shop contemplating the purchase of a brush cutter. Since my meager pennies were involved, I was making a very deliberate decision between two units $100 apart in price.
  
  While I was there, a bloke came in saying he had a WINZ grant to start a mowing business. Basically a blank cheque to buy what he wanted up to some astounding number ($12k, IIRC. Big money in 2002). Just went top of the line with a brand new ride on, brush cutter, pants, helmet, expensive fuel cans, chain saw,…
  
  He didn’t particularly look like the sort of body shape that would cope with hard work and I always wondered how long his “business” lasted before the stuff ended up on TradeMe.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:32am
  - pdm
    
    Ear Muffs cmm?
    
    A man like that could not possibly operate a lawnmower and edge trimmer without top of the range ear muffs.
    
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    September 15, 2025 8:39am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Just screw up some toilet paper into balls and stuff it in your ears. That’s top of the line…..
      
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      September 15, 2025 8:45am
    - Taieri
      
      A man like that could not possibly operate a lawnmower and edge trimmer without top of the range ear muffs
      ———–
      
      Have you ever worked in a noisy environment? Petrol-powered lawnmowers produce about 85-100 dB. NZ regulation require hearing protection of a minimum grade 3 above 85 dB. And rightly so…
      
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      September 15, 2025 8:53am
      - pdm
        
        Taking the mickey Taieri.
        
        Well trying to anyway.
        
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        September 15, 2025 9:40am
      - cmm
        
        $20 earmuffs are all you need for shooting with high power rifles which are far more harsh on the ears than mowers.
        
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        September 15, 2025 9:51am
      - Taieri
        
        $20 earmuffs are all you need for shooting with high power rifles which are far more harsh on the ears than mowers
        ————
        
        How often high power rifle shooters are exposed to noise?
        A professional lawn mower operator is working full time in a noisy environment.
        
        When I started working 50 years ago it was “unmanly” to wear the earmuffs. Only “wimps and poofters” would do that. And of course no one wanted to be one of these. In time we all started to appreciate the benefits of ear protection, still, the hearing loss is there and is not going to go away.
        
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        September 15, 2025 10:18am
      - cmm
        
        Taieri. After a lifetime of shooting etc that now give me 24/7 tinnitus, I am all in favour of people protecting their ears and I use hearing protection (too late now) for mowing or shooting.
        
        Hearing damage starts at around 80dB. Mowers get to about 90dB (10x the sound pressure). Rifles get to 160+dB (100 million x the sound pressure) but for shorter times. dB is non-linear – each 10dB multiplies by ten.
        
        For mowing you should wear at least 20dB of hearing protection. Any more is gravy. $20 at Bunnings is more than enough for a reasonable set. $6 will buy you a pack of 4 pairs of 30dB ear plugs to keep in the car for back up.
        
        But you could spend $150 on some Bluetooth earmuffs that play rap music so loud that will give you hearing damage anyway.
        
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        September 15, 2025 11:15am
    - cmm
      
      IIRC he got the earmuffs with a radio built in and rechargeable batteries. Why spend $30 when $150 muffs are available.
      
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      September 15, 2025 8:56am
      - pdm
        
        Exactly the point I feebly tried to make cmm.
        
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        September 15, 2025 9:41am
- gravedodger
  
  A person close to me suffers a degenerative neurological condition that leads to falls anywhere any time, any comfort from surroundings is of negligible effect.
  Yes sight loss is different but not an unsurmountable issue?
  We both enjoy the mobile home as safer and secure in managing the balance problems.
  My view is smaller and better equipped housing is a smart move here.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:12am
artemisia

Housing economist Wasay Majid has been researching this country’s much touted housing shortage and has come to a surprising conclusion – there is no shortage.

But but but, we are not hearing that from the Opposition, charities, advocates and the media. Suggest we can however assume there is a shortage of landlords willing to make a rental offer to some applicants.

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/135145/economist-wasay-majid-says-figures-suggesting-we-have-housing-shortage-are-probably
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September 15, 2025 8:28am
- cmm
  
  I looked at his models and I think, like any “reasearch” built on models rather than solid data, they are speculation.
  
  One of the factors that he does not seem to mention is changes in utilisation. He assumes a constant household size of 2.7 people per household. That just is not reality.
  
  If I look at our street, 12 years ago (when we moved here) there were many children. They have almost all grown up and moved out – leaving empty-nest couples or single people.
  
  Population numbers do not have to increase to drive more housing demand.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:44am
- peterwn
  
  But the Left needs people to think there is a housing shortage so they can promise more houses. Whether they would deliver is another matter.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:48am
  - Paulus
    
    Waiting on Jacinda’s 100,000 !
    
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    September 15, 2025 4:13pm
- pdm
  
  arti I agree with that guy – using Hawkes Bay as an example.
  
  In the last 10 years about 5 brand new rest homes have been built in Napier/Hastings. I am not sure on sizes but say each has 100 units through the range from 3 bedroom to 1 bedroom.
  
  In this time 500 family units, widows, widowers and couples have moved from their homes of varying values to these rest homes freeing up 500 homes for purchase or rent.
  
  Now the people moving into those freed up homes will be a mix of new retirees who do not want to go into rest homes yet, people upgrading, first home buyers and possibly even new renters.
  
  As the second group move a further 500 homes become available for occupation.
  
  Using the above as a guide mrspdm and I cannot see how there is a housing shortage in Napier/Hastings. Especially as Housing NZ have built heaps of awful looking places (potential slums) around both cities as well.
  
  But, just in case there are at least two more Rest Homes proposed that we know of – one in Taradale/Greenmeadows and one in Havelock North.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:50am
  - cmm
    
    The Boomers are a demographic wave that have moved through time:
    * 1950s/60s more prams.
    * 1960s/70s: more schools
    * 1980s: more wedding dresses
    …
    * 2020s: more empty-nesters taking up houses and starting to fill age care facilities.
    
    When the boomers are gone, it would seem to me that there are going to be a bunch of under-utilised old age places. If the people designed them properly they can maybe be redeployed as university residences, apartments or such.
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:01am
    - gravedodger
      
      2025 no weddings so lotsa dresses no longer required win/win, not so much for divorce lawyers until the Helen Clark wedding replacement theory comes to property disputes ?
      
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      September 15, 2025 9:15am
      - sirknz
        
        That would be de facto marriages. 2 years living together in a relationship akin to marriage now entitles you to half the assets of theother person.
        
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        September 15, 2025 10:21am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      “when the Boomers are gone”
      
      It could be awhile. Boomers were born 1946-64, peaking the mid 1950s IIRC. People are living longer. And, we are importing plenty of mid career people and their parents. The key driver on whether rest-homes empty out is the extent to which non Euro culture people continue to look after their Aged Ps at home or not.
      
      Or another pandemic.
      
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      September 15, 2025 10:54am
      - HeatherW
        
        Peak year in NZ for the number of births was 1961. There were over 65K births that year, a total that has not been exceeded since, even with twice the population.
        
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        September 15, 2025 1:18pm
Scooter

Interesting to compare how the US has handled the Charlie Kirk murder compared to NZ. So far the US has been open where it can, very quick and from the locals to the FBI pretty clear and letting people know what’s going on. Especially the ability for people like the governor of Utah to be so eloquent and heartfelt. The same at the first press conference when they announced they caught the suspect by the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, maybe NZ will benefit from their presence here. And no name suppression. Very impressive.

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/utah-gov-spencer-cox-shares-new-details-about-charlie-kirk-shooting-suspect-full-interview-247550021915 governor talking about the Charlie Kirk assassin and how social media are involved.

[Mod – link fixed]
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September 15, 2025 8:44am
- Scooter
  
  Thanks mod
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:08am
- sirknz
  
  The FBI didn’t do shit except for backslap themselves for other people doing the right thing. They didn’t find or identify the guy, his family turned him in, they didn’t find any of the messaging going around the trans group chats and social media channels linked to the shooter and his trans friends, the internet did, the FBI were lucky to find the gun.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:25am
Ghost

Is it time we got rid of suppression orders? The internet has rendered them virtually pointless. In the case of Tim Jago, his name was all over social media—and for those who hadn’t seen it there, most knew after Rawiri raised it in the House.

Now we’re faced with an injunction in the Tom Phillips case. Yet over the past few days, we’ve had the Minister of Police call him a monster, along with other comments. The media has been dropping hints that people should look online—the latest being Heather.

Article

Surely the temporary Tom Phillips injunction is pointless.

It won’t stop the chatter spreading.

It’s trending all over social media. It’s been picked up by international media. The guy on Ponsonby Rd knows about it because his brother told him. The neighbour knows because someone in the police… told him. That’s also how the senior nurse knows.

We have international media accessible from NZ running stories such as, The very dark mystery at the heart of the New Zealand family on the run and their unspeakable secret no-one can even talk about, which would destroy the folk hero myth around fugitive father Tom Phillips

We can’t stop things being reported overseas or people taking to social media to spread what is suppressed. It seems like it is time to get rid of this.
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September 15, 2025 8:44am
- gravedodger
  
  The NZ suppression model is flawed when everyone in close proximity knows full well and all the others not interested apart from ghouls and nutters.
  The simple fact the shooters dad immediately recognised his son from the enhanced images and began the process to ending the hunt was telling indeed.
  Responsible citizen involvement in action.
  Pity that Father who is now intimately involved while the mob bay for the execution of his flesh and blood.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:23am
  - AitchW
    
    What a gut punch moment that must have been for the father.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:23am
- Quail
  
  Ghost,
  You are correct.
  The real truth must not be withheld.
  Hiding the truth always creates speculation, often of the worst kind.
  Todays media can not be trusted to be objective .
  The bias in the taxpayer funded NZ Media is such that after the weather forecast it pays to look outside!
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:50am
- Beach Haven expat
  
  Ginny Andersen last week seemed to repeat Andrew Little’s moronic belief that we could impose NZ suppression on other countries in another example of their central control ethos, overlooking that would open the door to less enlightened regimes demanding we don’t talk about whatever they want kept secret.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:08am
- NoFax
  
  This has been an issue for a long time now. I recall there was a wealthy American tourist who got caught with a small amount of marijuana coming into the country. He was fined and deported but given name suppression. It so happened that a reporter was at Court and was not impressed by Judge David Harvey’s approach and reported the story. Then there was a story about how it was easily avoidable if you went online and searched for it. I remember the reporter saying you could find the American’s name in 30 minutes – of course it could be done in 30 seconds. However, I remember there was a lot of mocking of Judge Harvey as though he was this old, out-of-touch judge that didn’t know the internet was washing his old ways away. Of course, Judge Harvey was at the time the most knowledgeable Judges on this topic, and he even taught me “IT and the Law” when I was at law school. A bigger story would have been, did the Judge know what he was doing when he granted name suppression? Perhaps but I cannot confirm that.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:35am
- Jack5
  
  Ghost’s “…we’ve had the Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell, call him [Tom Phillips] a monster … “
  
  On Sean Plunket’s video channel, Mitchell three times called Phillips a “child abuser,” and also defended use of the term, which has sinister connotations.
  
  The three children in a year or three will be old enough to give accounts of this.
  
  You can’t libel the dead, but in fairness any independent inquiry as suggested by Prime Minister Luxon should put this accusation on its agenda.
  
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  September 15, 2025 11:23am
  - Fender
    
    Fine then so are orangi t workers when things go pair shaped, they can’t hide behind their job titles
    The abuse suffered under their watch is no different
    
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    September 15, 2025 1:18pm
  - MCōs
    
    In what respect was he inferring Phillips abused his kids because it’s pretty obvious to me that making them live in the conditions he apparently did for that period of time amounts to abuse.
    
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    September 15, 2025 4:22pm
imalwaysright

Health NZ want 24/7 visiting hours at hospitals.

Its hard enough for staff having to negotiate family members, their kids, the noise, making a mess, and their takeaways, for the current 11 or 12 hrs a day.

Its a workplace, I’m surprised Worksafe hasn’t intervened before now.

May as well put the hospital beds in a mall next to the foodcourt.
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September 15, 2025 8:50am
- Ghost
  
  Our hospital doesn’t care what time people go in. They officially kick people out at 8pm, but you can go in later.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:07am
  - gravedodger
    
    Agree Ghost the well established medical advantage of assistance in recovery from close friends and family involvement is well established although the wild picnic behaviours of some are of real concern.
    
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    September 15, 2025 9:26am
  - MCōs
    
    Middlemore is 2–8pm, but my visitors were never chucked out
    However I suspect it’s handy fallback if someone is being stroppy
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:37am
- kowtow
  
  Also a place of recuperation and stress.
  
  Mass ,continual visits from selfish folk doesn’t help.
  
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  September 15, 2025 9:57am
Southern Raider

Spain is lost. Time to let the Moors take over again

The premier tour of Spain cycling event had to cancel the last stage in Madrid due to Pro Palestine protesters.

Who does the Mayor of Madrid blame? The socialist PM who encouraged protesters to turnip and then praised them on how proud he was of the protest and disruption they caused.

Is Spain due a right wing Govt or too far gone?
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September 15, 2025 9:22am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  According to this report, Spain is now one of the most politically polarized countries in Europe:
  https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2023-03/2023%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report%20FINAL.pdf
  
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  September 15, 2025 11:39am
imalwaysright

On TV 1 news an ear witness to the Philips shooting recounted what she heard.
“Bang, bang, bang…”
Seven or eight shots within about two or three seconds.

Did Philips have a semi automatic perhaps?
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September 15, 2025 9:26am
- john1234
  
  There have been many media references to “high powered rifle” used by Phillips which makes it sound more like a bolt action 308 or 7.62.
  All the police weapons are semi-auto – either Glock 9mm handguns or Bushmaster AR15 type rifle.
  The seven or eight gunshots in 2 or 3 secs sounds like the police gunfire to me.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:59am
  - Jack5
    
    Why did the police statements emphasise “high powered rifle”.
    
    Yet the wounded policeman survived a head wound.
    
    Another point that could be elaborated by the Prime Minister’s suggested inquiry into the whole Phillips saga.
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360823486/pm-hints-inquiry-tom-phillips-search
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:15am
    - john1234
      
      The police statement suggests that the injured policeman’s head injury was caused by a bullet that was deflected upwards as it passed through the windshield. This is not mutually exclusive with the weapon being a “high powered rifle”.
      
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      September 15, 2025 1:30pm
    - Swifty
      
      ‘High-powered’ is just our lazy journalist’s default descriptor.
      
      It’s just to create outrage.
      
      And you never, ever, ever, see ‘low’ or ‘medium-powered’ used in NZ news media.
      
      That’s the tell.
      
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      September 15, 2025 3:48pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    “The seven or eight gunshots in 2 or 3 secs sounds like the police gunfire to me.”
    
    You’re probably right, assuming that the cop fired through his windscreen, otherwise how did the 4 or 5 holes get there?
    
    Did Philips get a shot off?
    Did the cop take a couple of ricochets from his own rounds?
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:32am
    - john1234
      
      You misread or not read the police comments.
      Policeman A is the first to arrive, Phillips fires off several shots at Policeman A in his car, critically wounding him through the windscreen. It is believed that the head wound was from a bullet that was deflected upwards as it passed through the windscreen.
      Policeman B arrives in a second car, shoots Phillips, killing him. It sounds to me that those were the shots that were in rapid succession.
      Of course Phillips got several shots off and of course the cop was not hit by his own rounds… WTF?
      
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      September 15, 2025 1:28pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        I didn’t read any police comments.
        “Policeman B arrives in a second car, shoots Phillips”
        That’s more than 3 seconds, but believe whatever suits you.
        
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        September 15, 2025 2:12pm
      - john1234
        
        Here you go.
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/572468/timeline-of-the-day-tom-phillips-case-came-to-a-close
        If you believe conspiracy theories you should change your handle to imalwayswrong
        
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        September 15, 2025 5:15pm
Yvette

Maori Language Week
One measure of the care of the Maori language may be the amount of taxpayer funds allocated to preserving, promoting and passing on the language.
A challenge for anyone is to name what amount the Government total spend is annually in doing this?
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September 15, 2025 9:47am
- imalwaysright
  
  My parents taught me English. Didn’t cost anything.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:46am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Many of my cousins speak Maori – didn’t cost the govt. a cent – they were taught by their parents.
    Paying to learn Maori is bullshit.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:32am
- Gussy Fink-Nottle
  
  And review the efficacy of the initiative too.
  How often do you hear a natural conversation in Te Reo Maori, and has that frequency increased in the last 5 years?
  
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  September 15, 2025 11:49am
Frank the tank

20,000 for the Palestine Protest?

Based off the pictures looked less than 3,000……
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September 15, 2025 10:31am
Frank the tank

“Christopher Luxon told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that NZTA should think carefully about closing busy routes such as the bridge”

Dear Chris,

I know this is novel but as PM why don’t you just tell the NZTA that there will be no further closing of the bridge for protest marches or a brisk southwesterly.
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September 15, 2025 10:34am
- Ghost
  
  So the next time a government locks a country down and forces you two take a vaccine, you don’t want the ability to march and protest? How about marching against immigration?
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:56am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    Come on. Protesting does not give you a right to block highways.
    
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    September 15, 2025 10:59am
    - Ghost
      
      And yet they do, groundswell did, the mandate protests did. People complain when there is a protest they don’t suppport but have no issues when it is something they support.
      
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      September 15, 2025 11:06am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        I would always have an issue if I was literally blocked from being somewhere I need to be.
        
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        September 15, 2025 11:35am
      - pdm
        
        Ghost I went to two Groundswell protests.
        
        Traffic on arterial routes was slowed to the speed of tractors but, no roads were blocked other than by a Police Pointsman who controlled traffic at the very first set of lights which were turned off for a short time.
        
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        September 15, 2025 12:02pm
      - Ghost
        
        Groundswell down here meant a 15 minute drive into town took an hour
        
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        September 15, 2025 12:08pm
      - Frank the tank
        
        Didn’t support this either nor the hikois. There has to be a right to protest but it should not be to the detriment of those that chose not to partake in that protest.
        
        Again plenty of places and venues to protest that don’t involve effecting people’s travel plans.
        
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        September 15, 2025 12:16pm
      - john1234
        
        And various hikoi.
        They all need to be stopped. March somewhere else that is not disrupting people’s freedom of movement.
        
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        September 15, 2025 1:34pm
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      Unfortunately it does once a couple of weak government departments sanction a minority’s threatened/planned breach of a pretty simple law.
      
      https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Harbour+Bridge+View/@-36.8121664,174.7512731,3a,75y,71.8h,82.19t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shFqTfmCxyLdnTbsvepfuKw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D7.808638071852528%26panoid%3DhFqTfmCxyLdnTbsvepfuKw%26yaw%3D71.80352806738158!7i16384!8i8192!4m7!3m6!1s0x6d0d39ad1148bbe3:0xe08182c51f68d4cf!8m2!3d-36.835419!4d174.7463773!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F11pxlg8bkm!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDkxMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
      
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      September 15, 2025 12:21pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    Plenty of other places to protest that don’t involve the closing of the country’s main arterial route through it’s largest city.
    
    Protests that march across the Harbour Bridge do so with the sole intention to piss people off.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:00am
  - john1234
    
    Nobody saying they can’t march. Marching is legal. Marching across the bridge without permission is illegal. Don’t give them permission to march across the bridge as the degree of inconvenience to other people and commercial productivity is significant.
    
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    September 15, 2025 1:33pm
    - Ian
      
      Not sure the bike lobby mob of a while ago had permission – didn’t they just charge through?….
      
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      September 15, 2025 2:29pm
      - john1234
        
        Could be…
        
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        September 15, 2025 5:16pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Often depends on whether it’s the same gaggle of unrepresentative minority activists pissing everyone off with obstructions or a groundswell with huge support over some massive issue affecting everyone.
    
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    September 15, 2025 7:58pm
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Because the enabling legislation of the NZTA prohibits the Minister of Transport from directing NZTA on traffic management, including road closures. Such a direction would be unlawful.
  
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  September 15, 2025 10:58am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Make it lawful then.
    
    What a silly rule.
    
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    September 15, 2025 11:05am
    - Ghost
      
      So you’d have no problem with a labour mp, minister, PM, or how about a green or Māori mp then having the ability to tell nzta to close access to roads?
      
      3 5
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      September 15, 2025 11:12am
      - Frank the tank
        
        No problem at all. This is fine by me because we can vote that individual out of office and place pressure on them re their decisions.
        
        An unelected public servant that shares the same political views you can’t.
        
        8 0
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        September 15, 2025 12:11pm
      - Ghost
        
        Not for 3, possibly 4 years soon. In the mean time you could have green or maori ministers deciding to close roads for what ever reason they want.
        
        3 2
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        September 15, 2025 12:27pm
      - john1234
        
        Don’t be silly. The policy just needs to be established that protest marches do not block critical infrastructure.
        
        1 1
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        September 15, 2025 1:37pm
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      It is not a silly rule. I don’t want ministers interfering in traffic management. It is a terrible idea. That is why the law is so explicit.
      
      5 3
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      September 15, 2025 11:37am
      - Frank the tank
        
        But you would let unelected public servants with the same political bents interfering in traffic management (such as this) without a second thought.
        
        4 1
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        September 15, 2025 12:13pm
  - john1234
    
    The minister sets policy and the policy can be set to prohibit use of critical NZTA infrastructure for protests.
    It’s not that hard.
    
    2 1
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    September 15, 2025 1:36pm
JamesSamuel

Has anyone else noticed that of all his foreign correspondents (France, Italy, Australia, England and the USA) the only one that Mike Hosking does not interrupt or question is Richard Arnold from the States? He never seems to take issue with him about anything he says. It’s kind of weird that every time Arnold comes on Hosking says not a word, except to prompt him on the topics he’s covering. It’s almost as if he’s been told to do this. Why this should be I haven’t a clue – particularly as Arnold’s politics are not exactly in tune with the rest of the show.
3 8
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September 15, 2025 10:34am
- Conservatarian
  
  The Arnold interviews have to be pre-recorded surely. Or maybe it’s just AI Arnold.
  
  Arnold is an embarrassingly one-eyed leftist. When Arnold is not reading out press releases from Pelosi or Schumer, he is regurgitating the even more partisan opinions of MSDNC (oops I deadnamed this TV network) or the clucking hens of The View.
  
  Arnold did display some rare sanity last week with a solemn tone on the Charlie Kirk assassination (I deliberately listened to Arnold last week to gauge his view).
  
  I’m not sure what he’s now saying about the assassination of Charlie Kirk now that some completely unsurprising facts have surfaced that are very inconvenient to leftists.
  
  You know, young communist assassin, assassin doesn’t like Kirk “saying mean things”, assassin has a transgender “girl”friend.
  
  6 2
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  September 15, 2025 12:07pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Richard Arnold could be a good contributor to Mike Hosking’s show if his interviews were timed for after 7 a.m.
  That is, after The Platform starts.
  
  1 0
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  September 15, 2025 3:49pm
Ian

Maybe Verity Johnson should go herself. Stuff describes her as an Auckland based writer and business owner. A search of the Companies Registrar shows she is sole director and shareholder of Two Leopards Ltd, category is publishing. Therefore self-promoting and hardly an earth shaking company that should command our attention.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360821851/new-zealand-broken-and-youre-dumb-stay
13 3
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September 15, 2025 10:56am
- Spam
  
  Or apportion blame to the government that started the slump.
  
  7 1
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  September 15, 2025 11:30am
- Jack5
  
  Verity Johnson is talking about NZ migration to Australia.
  
  She, and many others, overlook that half the flow from NZ to Australia is made up of people who weren’t born in New Zealand.
  
  That is, half of the flow is due to people from the Third World using New Zealand as a back door to Australia.
  
  https://www.indianweekender.co.nz/news/nz-as-the-launchpad-more-migrants-eye-the-aussie-dream
  
  AND:
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/567964/nearly-half-of-kiwis-applying-for-australian-citizenship-born-elsewhere
  
  11 1
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  September 15, 2025 11:45am
  - Ian
    
    I know that, you know that. Johnson doesn’t allude to any of that in her article – she’s just having a go to discredit the government. And when Australia really wakes up to people using NZ as a back door to get into Australia, it will be harder Kiwi’s born here to get into Australia. She could have covered that in her article as well….
    
    3 1
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    September 15, 2025 2:26pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  The cognitive dissonance is strong in this one!
  
  It’s the look of a man planning his international-speaking-circuit career. If he lives in NZ after he finishes his PM stint, you can paint me National-blue and call me queen of the smurfs.
  
  Isn’t that exactly what fangirl verities Queen of Hearts – PM of empathy already did? Why then lay that snipey speculative slander on Luxon?
  
  Classic Marxist playbook, accuse your enemy of what you yourself are doing.
  
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  September 15, 2025 8:47pm
Fender

Just replying to DG from yesterday
I am one that stands immediately the seatbelt sign comes off but it is because of being tall and very uncomfortable sitting. The sooner I can get up and get blood flowing again even with a head tilt is absolute bliss to anyone with back issues
Nothing to do with being first of the plane
7 4
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September 15, 2025 11:04am
- cmm
  
  There is something in that, especially for us taller people.
  After long periods of sitting down, it is a good idea to stand up a for a short period before walking. It helps your balance restore and stops you from passing out/falling over.
  
  6 2
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  September 15, 2025 11:57am
- MCōs
  
  Personally I detest the process from arriving at the airport to getting out of the plane at the other end.
  My first ever flight c1962 was Timaru to Chch. That was fun in a DC3
  People used to get dressed up in those days
  
  7 2
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  September 15, 2025 12:30pm
  - mogg
    
    I remember long haul flights to Europe before the airlines started code sharing. A couple of occasions Ihad four seats to myself, whether awake or asleep I could lay horizontal.
    
    2 0
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    September 15, 2025 2:58pm
  - greybeard
    
    Those DC3s used to have seats which were similar to buses ! Chrome frames and padded seats.
    
    0 0
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    September 15, 2025 7:02pm
- john1234
  
  Make sure you get an aisle set – no reason at all not to stand up when the belt sign goes off.
  
  2 1
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  September 15, 2025 1:39pm
- Ra Henare
  
  I am also tall but make sure I stand and stretch regularly during the flight.
  
  I usually stay in the seat as passengers next to me leap to their feet. Allowing me to stretch out diagonally while seated.
  
  Sorry Fender, your self-justification doesn’t sound a real concern. Just saying, use rational thinking.
  
  1 0
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  September 15, 2025 3:55pm
cmm

I am 100% for Israel being able to defend itself against terrorism, but I must say I find the stance of some of these tech companies rather confusing.

These tech companies did everything they could to thwart Trump and were highly political. When Trump won in 2016 they had grief sessions and counseling and everyone was encouraged to be vitriolic against Trump.

But now people are being fired for taking an anti-Israeli stance. This must be rather confusing for employees seeing double standards.

Personally I think that the office is no place for any politics of any sort – for or against Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Democrats, Republicans,…

The only “political” thing that should be tolerated is patriotism on patriotic holidays – and that’s not really political.

Whatever, apply any rules consistently. Free speech etc is not just for the speech you (or your customers) like.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/dissent-over-gaza-bubbles-inside-amazon-microsoft-and-google-leading-to-workers-being-fired/HMV3P3S33FHJVGRGJ6ULZPF6B4/
5 2
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September 15, 2025 11:54am
- kowtow
  
  There’s an article in Eng media about how Euro military tech industry , desperate to get ahead due to Russian threat are hobbling themselves as they want to virtue signal over Gaza and exclude world leading Israeli cooperation.
  
  You couldn’t make this up !
  
  5 0
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  September 15, 2025 1:33pm
  - cmm
    
    From what I saw, their idea of “getting ahead” is rather inadequate.
    
    I tend to watch the production of 155mm howitzer ammunition – the bread and butter of the battle field. That’s a good indicator of the logistical capability of an arms industry.
    
    Rheinmetall is one of the largest suppliers. They are lifting their supply by a substantial amount but that will take until 2027 to reach capacity – so two years until they are really pumping them out. Even then it will only be able to supply around 50% of the shells that Ukraine wants (currently it is less than 20%).
    
    Another problem Rheinmetall has is that a lot of their manufacturing capability is in South Africa – a country which is aligned with Russia and might stop exports to Ukraine.
    
    After all, the same SA government vetoed the export of Gallil rifles to Israel back in the 1990s.
    
    At the moment the arms industry is running hot – especially in artillery and electronics – especially for drones and such.
    
    These things take a long time to spin up. Rheinmetall will be really pissed off when the war ends and they have 1.5 million shells per year of production capacity. Sure, there will be a few countries wanting to rebuild stockpiles but that’s not going to last more than a few years.
    
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    September 15, 2025 2:09pm
    - Jethrod
      
      They will just have to swap to making ploughshares.
      
      2 0
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      September 15, 2025 3:10pm
imalwaysright

Apparently Gerry Brownlee has rejected the flying of a Women’s Suffrage Flag, this Friday, at Parliament.

There have been multiple lgbt, maori, etc flags flown at Parliament, why not for the memory of women getting their rights?

This really fucks me off.
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September 15, 2025 1:16pm
- Ghost
  
  I agree with the speaker. The flying of a flag at parliament should be reserved for NZ flags or visiting vips/delegations. This is also what Winston has a members bill for.
  
  10 1
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  September 15, 2025 1:48pm
- cmm
  
  I think that’s the wrong decision.
  
  Giving women the vote was a historic step in our democratic process and thus parliament’s history. Parliament should acknowledge that historic step.
  
  That makes it very different from LGBT, Maori, Palestinian and other fake “rights” which are making noise about nothing related to parliament.
  
  IMHO, all those political symbols should also be banned from the House, including wearing any political badges and symbols (Palestinian dish rags, watermelon broaches, …). I would also prefer any party branding to be banned too – except clothing colours since it is rather impractical to tell people not to wear, say, blue ties.
  
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  September 15, 2025 2:17pm
Swifty

Wasn’t this woman one of those present and laughing at the shooting of the Trump doll?

https://x.com/suitandtie9999/status/1967351996899537157?s=46

When those involved weren’t instantly sacked I knew then that TVNZ was now the rotting carcass of what used to be a great New Zealand institution.
6 0
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September 15, 2025 3:42pm
- Ghost
  
  In the USA you could buy shooting targets of Obama, Biden, Hillary, Bill, etc. in nz people complain about a toy gun hitting a trump toy
  
  1 7
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  September 15, 2025 4:23pm
  - Swifty
    
    Sorry, what’s your point?
    
    0 0
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    September 15, 2025 4:33pm
    - Ghost
      
      You want people fired for having a bit of fun, shooting a toy gun at a toy trump. In the USA you can buy paper shooting targets with the presidents photo on them, no one is calling for those companies to stop selling them. You want people stacked over a bit of fun. Are the Americans more mature than some in nz that they can actually have a bit of fun, shooting up photo targets of politicians they don’t like, but in NZ the lefts cancel culture is now on the right.
      
      Here’s a Hillary target
      
      https://www.torrestargets.com/hillary-clinton-paper-shooting-target—prison-escapee/?searchid=28806&search_query=Hillary
      
      Americans buy them, have no problem with them
      
      In nz the precious are offended at a toy gun hitting a toy trump and demand people are fired.
      
      0 9
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      September 15, 2025 4:39pm
      - Swifty
        
        If it was a private broadcaster, no. They can do what the hell they like.
        
        On our supposedly neutral, taxpayer-funded state broadcaster, yes.
        
        If you can’t see the difference, then more fool you.
        
        6 0
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        September 15, 2025 5:29pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I’d say most (mature) people would regard shooting targets with pollies faces on them irresponsible too.
        
        0 0
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        September 15, 2025 8:16pm
Swifty

Willie Jackson is a stinking hypocrite.

“To infer that Peeni Henare’s identity as a Māori, Georgie Dansey’s identity or even my identity are somehow lesser because we have failed Doc Ferris’ ‘authentic Māori test’ is beyond offensive.”

This is exactly the tactic Jackson, and other Labour MPs, have used with Seymour and others – that they are ‘useless Māoris’ etc for not thinking the same way he does on issues.

Jackson takes New Zealanders for fools if he thinks we’ve forgotten what he’s said in the past.

Once again, Jackson demonstrates he’s got no principles – he’ll say and do anything, on any particular day, that he thinks will advantage him – and even if it is diametrically opposed to what he was saying or doing just last week.

He personifies all that’s wrong with the political left in New Zealand.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/willie-jackson-says-takuta-ferris-giving-political-extremists-ammunition-may-hurt-te-pati-maori-labour/DE67A6YMKNBOXHOVN7BU63VBLM/
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September 15, 2025 4:00pm
Swifty

Walmart joins others in completely pulling out of Portland.

https://x.com/realjameswoods/status/1967344874837160008?s=46
3 0
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September 15, 2025 4:32pm
Philview

I heard someone say a New Zealander gave a stirring speech at that March in London yesterday. This was followed by a group of Maoris giving a haka. The Maoris then unfurled an Isis flag and ripped it in half. The cheers for that were said to be off the scale. I can only assume Destiny Church were involved?
4 1
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September 15, 2025 4:48pm
MCōs

They closed their last two outlets in Portland more than two years ago.
There’s been a problem across the country with rampant shoplifting
https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/walmart-shutter-portland-locations-just-months-after-ceos-warnings-crime
2 0
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September 15, 2025 5:09pm
Swifty

“Every single non-believer is a criminal…”

https://x.com/realmaalouf/status/1967238576523141142?s=46

This, from an English Imam, and people call us filthy names if we say Islam is not compatible with Western countries or values.

Suicidal empathy.
7 1
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September 15, 2025 5:26pm

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