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October 8, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 08 October 2025

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General Debate

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Nikola Donatello

A little story that illustrates change in New Zealand, and not for the better.

In the late 60s some locals were convinced that a ski field was viable on Mount Hutt in Canterbury. First job was an access road. The engineer from the local council said it was impossible. So the folk who wanted the ski field found a local contractor with a bulldozer who just built the road. The beginnings of the ski field were up and running the next winter.

https://www.tba.co.nz/pdf_papers/2000_wp_28_methven.pdf

Today, the bulldozer driver would have been arrested. The local iwi would blockade the mountain. They would then charge millions to a developer to partner with them to build the ski field. The ski field would run over budget and take 14 years to open.

Then the ski field would go broke. The government would agree to bail it out so folk could keep skiing. The iwi would be deeply unhappy for reasons. The Waitangi Tribunal would rule that the Crown had breached the Treaty. Then demand more money.
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October 8, 2025 8:00am
- Blog-aholic
  
  You forgot that the Green consortium would be outside the elderly Environment Ministers home for days and nights chanting “From the Rakaia to the Sea we will not let you Ski”. Then one of them would break a window and blame the Minister for inciting the antiskietism……
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:07am
  - geoff3012
    
    Thats very funny…..just sayin
    
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    October 8, 2025 10:44am
- artemisia
  
  Did you forget these payments – to local and regional councils, NZTA, the various extensive consultation processes, to all those folk delving into history and legals to prep a case to the Waitangi Tribunal.
  
  Compare to the cost of a bale of #8 wire.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:11am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    In reality it would be impossible for any developer to simply pick a mountain now and seek permission to build a new ski field.
    
    For the same reasons that there will be no more hydro dams.
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:27am
    - RoboRob
      
      #1 on Luxons to do list this quater is
      
      1. Introduce new planning legislation to replace the RMA.
      
      The key word is ‘Introduce’. Hopefully they can have the RMA replacement passed into law BEFORE the next election.
      
      The cynic in me suspects National will do their usual plan of dragging it out so that it becomes an election issue. No more political games please, we needed the RMA replaced 15 years ago but last year would have been fine. Waiting until 2027 becuase the Nats want to win the next election would be galling.
      
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      October 8, 2025 8:53am
      - Ghost
        
        This has been the plan for a while, the first two phases passed and then the complete replacement next year
        
        The government will look to progress its reforms, introducing two Acts to replace the RMA by the end of 2025, bring it before the Select Committee in 2026, and pass it before the next election – and in time for councils starting their next long-term plans in 2027.
        
        Article
        
        Here’s a Letter from chris bishop about it
        
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        October 8, 2025 9:49am
      - peterwn
        
        Chris Bishop has indicated the intention is to have the new legislation in place by mid 2026.
        However this would be subject to two major provisos:
        1. The mood of the electorate at second reading time. If the general mood is unfavourable or that it is being unnecessarily rushed, the Government would push it out beyond the election rather risk losing votes over it.
        2. Winston Peter’s stance on it – this would be in the light of the electorate’s mood on it. See above.
        Note the original RMA was developed by a Labour government (admittedly in the Rogernomics era) but had not been passed by the time National won in 1990. National decided to complete the passage of the work in progress ‘as is’ (Jim Bolger PM and Simon Upton Environment Minister or similar were the main players). If I was in Jim’s shoes I would have opened it up for supplementary submissions and Select Committee consideration and considered whether there should be further amendments before third reading.
        
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        October 8, 2025 10:41am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        Great! Lets hope they stick to their word.
        
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        October 8, 2025 10:52am
      - Ghost
        
        They seem to have a good record of sticking to the time lines they allow for each stage
        
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        October 8, 2025 12:00pm
      - AitchW
        
        Peterwn the majority of voters will support the change.
        However the usual tiny minority will make a lot of noise about it.
        Hopefully the government (and Peters) will see through the noise and pass the new legislation.
        
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        October 8, 2025 10:56am
      - R
        
        Robo, the process is now about three quarter complete. Keep up.
        
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        October 8, 2025 11:02am
      - RoboRob
        
        @R
        
        I well remember the tax bracket changes promised by the Bill English led National party. Elect us and we will finish passing the bill, elect labour and it is gone. How did that work out for National and for us?
        
        If things get dire for National, and they are pretty bad now, it is no stretch of the imagination to see them using a new RMA as a carrot for votes.
        
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        October 8, 2025 1:17pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Never say never to more hydro dams.
      
      When the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow and the lights go out then maybe, just maybe, the rent-a-demo crowd will lose their sway.
      
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      October 8, 2025 9:14am
      - R
        
        When the lights do go out, the rent a demo crowd will be asking why the last 5 or so proposed hydro dams were never built, Donatella has provided a good simple to understand explanation. Archive this David F.
        
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        October 8, 2025 11:06am
- Pepe Lopez
  
  This is so very true, wondeful memories, I remember those days plus I used to do the books for several “engineering” workshops in the country side and they made anything the famers needed, no health and safety, nobody got hurt as I recall. Thank you again for such a breath of fresh air you brought to our breakfast table.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:12am
- cmm
  
  When I arrived in NZ in 1992, NZ still had a self-image of people who could achieve – the good old Number 8 wire myth. This is of course nothing special to NZers – everyone seems to think that of themselves (eg. “‘n boer maak ‘n plan” in South Africa).
  
  Now it’s filling out Form Number 8 down at WINZ.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:19am
  - Dougal10
    
    And there has just been a law change that you cannot take out insurance for possible breaches as decided by a council be it local or regional , this is one of the final blows by central govt to get rid of No8 wire innovation in nz.
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:27am
  - artemisia
    
    In the middle of 19th century one of my forbears migrated to New Zealand from England with a flock of sheep. Sounds like #8 wire to me.
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:29am
    - rouppe
      
      The point being they couldn’t do that now.
      
      Animal welfare rules. Health and safety rules. Lord knows what else
      
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      October 8, 2025 9:31am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        It took me 2 years of working with the various departments to be able to import 8 cattle embryoes.
        
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        October 8, 2025 10:08am
- Simon
  
  Yep it’s the country that the National party built.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:38am
  - R
    
    It’s the country that the socialists tried to destroy each time they gained the Treasury benchs.
    
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    October 8, 2025 12:53pm
- Quail
  
  ND,
  FYI
  The Bulldozer driver today could be liable for a fine of : $10 million dollars and / or a jail term of about 2 years.Add in criminal liability that can affect offshore travel etc.
  This Government has just increased fines for breaches of RMA regulation hugely.
  
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  October 8, 2025 9:11am
- NothingLeft
  
  “Local iwi” There were no Maori living in mid canterbury until after Europeans arrived. Though there were 500year old moa hunter middens found near coast. They’d wiped out the sources of food that might have made it possible to live there.
  
  There were only 90 Maori on whole of west coast in mid 19th century
  
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  October 8, 2025 9:23am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    It would have been so simple to manage the moa sustainably.
    
    AFAIK Australian aboriginals did not hunt species to extinction. I think a difference was that they were not in a permanent state of genocidal warfare with each other.
    
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    October 8, 2025 10:31am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Not correct. Most of the Aussie megafauna went extinct after the ancestors of Aboriginals arrived during last glaciation
      Australian megafauna – Wikipedia https://share.google/xBKVyZIIdVeo06m2
      Whenever humans arrive in a land for the first time, they wipe out most of the larger, slower-breeding animals. Happened about 50 thousand years ago in Aussie, about 12 thousand years ago in the Americas, and only during the last millennium in NZ.
      
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      October 8, 2025 1:09pm
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Thanks for that.
        
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        October 8, 2025 3:45pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Wrong on both counts I think.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_megafauna
      “New evidence based on accurate optically stimulated luminescence and uranium-thorium dating of megafaunal remains suggests that humans were the ultimate cause of the extinction for some of the megafauna in Australia.[5][6] The dates derived show that all forms of megafauna on the Australian mainland became extinct in the same rapid timeframe—approximately 46,000 years ago”
      
      And Aboriginals were no different from Māori or other paleolithic hunter gatherers around the world in living in a sate of constant intertribal conflict with high average mortality. Lots of European records of that. It’s an inevitable consequence of their situation and and theory/evolution in action. Peaceful tribes get wiped out by aggressive ones, and those with more martial skill end up taking over. It also prioritizes maximizing the percentage of warriors per mouth-to feed to maximize tribes military strength. Meaning old and infirm are an evolutionary millstone, women low-status and sees earlier puberty and shorter lifespans selected for (old people reduce number of warriors that can be sustained by food sources)
      
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      October 8, 2025 1:52pm
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Thanks for the correction.
        
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        October 8, 2025 3:44pm
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    Yes ngai tahus mystical affinity with the South Island and its water is certainly no more historical than the European and Chinese settlers who arrived at around the same time.
    
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    October 8, 2025 12:17pm
  - Cantabrian
    
    The whole of the South Island had only around 2000 Maori in 1861 and 7100 in 1961. Of course a Maori was defined as full or half blood. The ‘mixed’ part Maori of today wouldn’t have been included.
    
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    October 8, 2025 12:23pm
- R
  
  A very concise explanation of why NZ has such low productivity, and our grandchildren may not have a future here
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:58am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Yep Nikola. Shout out to the legendary Doug Hood. Though to be fair, the initial road could only be loosely called a road. Even in the mid to late 80’s it was a fairly ropey drive and one lane a lot of the way, if you couldn’t back a car, you were buggered. And heaven help you if you stopped for a photo at the saddle in a howling gale!
  
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  October 8, 2025 12:42pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Looks about right ND!
  
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  October 8, 2025 7:08pm
Mark Adams

Lucy Rogers is remarkably courageous

Every Saturday afternoon at 2:00pm Lucy stands in front of Britomart station protesting the Saturday pro-Hamas rally.

I went to shake her hand and then stayed with her for over two hours.

She has been protesting for nearly two years, silent and steadfast and usually alone.

Lucy doesn’t fly an Israeli flag, she makes clear her focus is on freeing the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas – and protesting the police who wrongfully arrested her for doing just this, silently standing or sitting in protest.

She arrives and then makes hand-written signs such as “free the hostages”. Lucy does this every time because the pro-Hamas people repeatedly rip her signs away.

They will stand immediately in front of her, pointedly blocking Lucy with their flags and banners, but she doesn’t react.

The pro-Hamas people are there in hundreds. The rally is loud and intimidating to outsiders. But it is well organised and the stewards generally keep the most threatening people a metre or so from Lucy.

Lucy continues to stand or sit quietly resolute, consciously non-aggressive.

Even when faced with verbal aggression she doesn’t react in kind, she either ignores it, or responds calmly.

Yesterday despite the obvious intimidation, the police weren’t nearby. They stood in a group and watched the protest go by and didn’t follow.

Towards the end of the rally, Lucy approached the three police officers standing by, with video of today’s sign-ripping attack – the same woman has done it several times before.

One said that even though there was wrongdoing, they would not go into the crowd to find the woman. It would soon be five and he wanted to go home to his family.

Lucy does this every Saturday, protesting to free the hostages.

She is nearly always alone.

I found the the pro-Hamas people very angry and deliberately intimidating.

Confronted with this, Lucy’s combination of courage and calm non-aggressiveness, was truly remarkable.

If you live in Auckland and have a couple of hours free on a Saturday afternoon, perhaps sometimes you might consider standing alongside Lucy.
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October 8, 2025 8:03am
- F E Smith
  
  I am always amazed how readily the New Zealand Right Wing is prepared to forgive such misfeasance by the Police, simply because it is the Police.
  
  One of my primary points to any cop who complains about me pointing out their non-compliance with the law is that the NZ Police must be the first people to follow the law and the last people to break it. That includes meeting their obligations. For some reason, neither the Courts, the politicians, the media, nor the public seem to mind if the Police fail to adhere to the law or not meet their obligations because they think it is only criminals who suffer because of it.
  
  It isn’t, and we should all expect the highest standards of the Police. As Mark has shown, we don’t get them.
  
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  October 8, 2025 5:26pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Intimidating activism by Greens

It is time to stop pretending these activists are victims. They are not. They are participants in a dangerous new culture of intimidation, a culture cheered on by a Green Party that has lost its moral compass.
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/10/chris-lynch-greens-have-crossed-line.html
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October 8, 2025 8:05am
- cmm
  
  That moral compass got demagnetized sometime during the Rod and Jeannette era.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:12am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Jeanette, who was more than happy to light up a fire in the Coromandel in January?
    
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/green-leader-burns-as-firemen-fume
    
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    October 8, 2025 9:19am
- Simon
  
  Greens are not serious people. Only time the Green MPs fight hard is when something gets between them and their grossly excessive remuneration package.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:41am
- Boy Geoff
  
  Kinda like that old observation about the EMO subculture – if they’re meant to be nonconformist, why do they all look the same…?
  
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  October 8, 2025 9:43am
artemisia

Actor who shared Winston Peters’ address online says she regrets doing so

Acacia O’Connor, a spokesperson for Global Movement to Gaza, regrets losing an income stream. Because it was only an oversight. “At the time, Israel had three of our friends and had said that they weren’t worried about casualties, so it was an oversight.”

Oversight? Maybe Ms O’Connor does not have access to a dictionary. Or an education.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/575241/actor-who-shared-winston-peters-address-online-says-she-regrets-doing-so
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October 8, 2025 8:05am
- Blog-aholic
  
  No, no she doesn’t.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:07am
  - R
    
    She is frustrated that she was identified.
    
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    October 8, 2025 12:55pm
- cmm
  
  Translation: I am sorry I was held to account and face consequences.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:10am
  - Foxfour
    
    Shes been ‘cancelled’ for exercising her free speech.
    Dont you know those things dont apply to everyone, or as its known these days she was Kimelled
    
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    October 8, 2025 9:21am
    - Local Miller
      
      She bit the hand that fed her. If she were a dog she would probably have been put down.
      
      Peters has a right to say he doesn’t want such an irresponsible person in his promotional videos.
      
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      October 8, 2025 9:27am
    - Yabster
      
      lol the left are such dheads- how about you give out your address ff- so we can all pop round exercise our “free speech” and protest outside you digs- maybe a broken window or tree? not so appealing?
      
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      October 8, 2025 9:31am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      Her speech was free.
      
      Speech is never wihtout consequences.
      
      She exercised her free speech and she got the consequences.
      
      And Kimmell was PAUSED by his parent company because the stations his show was syndicated to didn’t want a bar of his lies.
      
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      October 8, 2025 10:11am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Shes been ‘cancelled’ for exercising her free speech.
      
      Something, something, “Free speech doesn’t mean it’s free of consquences”.
      … something, something , “Deplatforming doesn’t mean you’ve lost your right to free speech, it just means that you’re an asshole and people have stopped listening to you” as per the now infamous XKCD cartoon.
      
      Yes! Yes, I’m sure I remember being lectured about this by Left over the last ten years.
      
      We’re now playing by your rules.
      
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      October 8, 2025 12:00pm
- Boy Geoff
  
  There just seems to be far too many “strong” young (white) womin in this country. The type that all the old men in this country are apparently scared of. It leads to misogyny.
  
  Heh
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:16am
  - Gussy Fink-Nottle
    
    I’m not a misogynist. Yet.
    
    This is all just jolly japes for Ms O’Connor and her fellow travelers.
    Her ignorance is typified by her wearing extravagant earrings in the colours of the Palestine flag.
    
    Whilst she cannot hope to balance the significant and complex issues at hand, it’s a nice opportunity to get out the house and show off her creative jewellery skills.
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:23am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “I’m not a misogynist. Yet.”
      
      Yeeees. There’s certainly a lot of material to work with these days (the closet Jacinda voters/supporters spring to mind), but I do resist the urge to generalise.
      
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      October 8, 2025 7:14pm
  - Paulus
    
    In fact it now appears that ther are large numbers of so called University educated for free, young Maori women who are trying to get a job that they feel they are owed, or are in the Maori public service, who feel than they must exercise their Maori view that it all belongs to them.
    
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    October 8, 2025 2:38pm
- Burtland
  
  well it least it has ridden us of the painful ‘shit-on-whitey’ ONE NZ ad – hopefully it has cost ONE NZ a fortune
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:44am
- Simon
  
  Criminal that attacked Peter’s house charged with burglary not home invasion what a joke. Burglary will likely be dropped.
  
  The state promotes these criminals. Clown show judiciary performance. These dancing monkey court judges purely performative while vicious scum walk.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:46am
  - Taieri
    
    Clown show judiciary performance
    ———-
    
    The individual in question was charged by the police prosecutor not by judiciary.
    
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    October 8, 2025 10:12am
  - peterwn
    
    There is no crime of ‘home invasion’ as such. The relevant crimes are burglary (10 years max) and aggravated burglary (14 years max). Burglary in the Crimes Act has a broader meaning than the usual dictionary (eg a male who entered ladies toilets at a mall with the intention of spying on users was charged with ‘burglary’). Aggravated burglary is where a weapon is involved.
    This puts to rest arguments in yesterday’s GD as to whether the attack on Winston Peter’s house was intentional damage (7 years max or 10 years max if the life of a person) rather than burglary.
    The person has been charged with ‘burglary’ but it could be an aggravated burglary charge.
    Those who egged the person on would face being being parties to the crime with the same maximum sentences as for the relevant crime. The Police could well be questioning the accused to identify these parties and he could well turn King’s evidence in the hope of mitigating his penalty and then playing the potential parties off against each others.
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:05am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Perhaps those incredibly learned folks could lobby to have the definitions they work with better align with reality????? That way they might look at lot less bloody silly to the general public.
      
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      October 8, 2025 7:21pm
- RoboRob
  
  FAFO
  
  Tough shit.
  
  As for ‘Israel had three of our friends’, that’s because the ‘friends’ hopped in a boat with almost no supplies for Gaza and headed directly for the blockade. When asked if they wanted to be deported or held in custody, they selected ‘held in custody’. They did that so the friendly media here could create headlines such as ‘Three New Zealanders taken hostage by Isreal’.
  
  Very interesting to see the links between the hard core left wing actors and the Wellington media.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:58am
- Maggie's ex partner
  
  I do think it’s important for protestors of this kind to experience consequences, and lots of them
  
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  October 8, 2025 9:18am
imalwaysright

One good thing to come out of the cowardly attack on Winston’s home is that apparently the Police are adopting
Rudy Giuliani’s “broken windows” policy.

Ten Police officers and CSI is a bit of overkill, but it is their first one.

Bring on Zero Tolerance…
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October 8, 2025 8:07am
- Philview
  
  Breaking Winston Peter’s window is political intimidation. The sort of thing the Nazis used to do in the 1930s. We aren’t at Kristallnacht yet but there are dangers if left unchecked.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:23am
cmm

Herald has a sob-piece about an ex-criminal who did jail time 28 years ago struggling to find a job.

While there are likely other factors, the criminal convictions from 28 years ago would seem to be a barrier to employment. The dude does himself no favours with tattoos etc.

A lawyer from the Howard League says he thinks NZ has too much of a punishment mindset – that we continue to punish criminals after imprisonment by ostracizing them. Perhaps that is true and the underlying cause should be identified.

Perhaps there is a valid reason for the ostracism. In NZ it is almost impossible to get a prison term. NZ imprisonment durations are very short and then it is no wonder that people do not feel that criminals have served their debt to society.

Further, NZ has some of the highest recidivism in the world. Clearly serving time is not a clear indicator that someone has learned from their mistakes. No wonder people steer clear of people with convictions.

So what’s the solution here? Maybe two things from the (ex)criminal side:
* Sharpen up your act and get rid of the tattoos.
* Reduce recidivism so that people can trust ex-crims.
* Accept the consequences of your actions and the responsibility to fix things up. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

And maybe a few things on the judiciary/corrections side too. The judiciary needs to build trust that a crim really has served their time and turned their lives around.
* Hand down meaningful sentences.
* Have people serve full sentences – as handed down.
* Make prisons a bit less cushy.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360845745/almost-8000-applications-no-job-man-still-haunted-what-he-did-28-years-ago
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October 8, 2025 8:09am
- Flossie
  
  There are possibly one, or more, factors other than his past imprisonment that come into it. I wonder if there’s more to this than the report shares.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:16am
  - cmm
    
    There’s always more to it than they share…
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:20am
  - notreadyet
    
    She is an actress, doesn’t that tell us enough, spends most of her life not living in the real world
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:21am
    - R
      
      Actress, …so thinks that her screen life is ‘ the real world’
      
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      October 8, 2025 11:19am
- KKNZ2025
  
  What punishment mindset?
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/575267/we-ve-got-a-life-sentence-and-the-perpetrator-hasn-t-whanau-devastated-with-coward-punch-killer-s-sentence
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:20am
  - cmm
    
    They mean a punishment mindset amongst the populace – not the state actors (police, judiciary, and corrections).
    
    Clearly the state actors do not have a punishment mindset – in fact quite the reverse. That means that when crims are released from prison, the general populace does not feel they have really served their time and been rehabilitated and this is likely what causes more integration problems.
    
    I suppose in some ways it is really a mild form of vigilantism. If the state actors don’t do their job properly then the people pick up the slack.
    
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    October 8, 2025 10:56am
- imalwaysright
  
  “…that we continue to punish criminals after imprisonment by ostracizing them.”
  
  Yesterday a scumbag got 4 years and 2 months for killing an innocent man with a coward punch.
  He will be out in a couple of years.
  
  Of course the public should continue to ostracize him, the public know that the courts did not dispense justice therefore the public have every right , duty, to punish him themselves.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:38am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  There is an obvious answer. Lower the price to the employer. Change the law so anyone with a criminal conviction can be employed for six months at 50 percent of the minimum wage.
  
  Sure maybe that won’t be enough but it would help.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:45am
  - artemisia
    
    Flexi-wage, for example, lowers cost to employers via a taxpayer wage contribution.
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:51am
    - pdm
      
      I guess that might help arty.
      
      After all the Taxpayer is paying one way or the other.
      
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      October 8, 2025 8:55am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Things will be just about impossible for that guy unless he gets lucky.
      
      4 2
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      October 8, 2025 8:56am
      - Swifty
        
        Self-employment is his salvation.
        
        3 0
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        October 8, 2025 9:28am
      - greybeard
        
        The article about him should help a bit. Provided he tidies himself up, as he looks a mess.
        
        3 0
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        October 8, 2025 10:13am
    - cmm
      
      Why do all solutions have to involve the taxpayer’s wallet?
      
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      October 8, 2025 8:59am
      - artemisia
        
        I know, cmm, but some employers might take a chance. And cheaper than the dole short term, and hopefully they become taxpayers themselves long term if they stay off the sofa.
        
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        October 8, 2025 9:06am
      - cmm
        
        artemisia: The cost of employing a dodgy candidate go way beyond their wages.
        
        Even with the 90 day trial period it is hard to get rid of bad staff and, likely, the high value staff don’t want their workplace tainted by an ex-crim either.
        
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        October 8, 2025 10:59am
    - artemisia
      
      Swifty – Self-employment is his salvation.
      
      Yes and Flexi-wage is also available for that. Plus business start up $$ from WINZ. Good for MSD stats as the time on the dole resets.
      
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      October 8, 2025 9:47am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Make it easier to lay him off if things go wrong.
    
    From the story, he seems to be back on the straight and narrow, and would appear to have a good track record overseas (presumably he did not declare his convictions to get those jobs, but had to here).
    
    Sometimes, a second chance is warranted.
    
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    October 8, 2025 9:23am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Eliminate the Minimum Wage.
    Its none of the Governments business what people get paid.
    
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    October 8, 2025 10:57am
    - Paulus
      
      We have almost the largest minimum wage in the so called developed world with no productivity.
      QED
      
      5 1
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      October 8, 2025 2:42pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Perhaps demand workers insert a broom in their bottoms and sweep the floor while moving between the bathroom and the work area. I’m sure that will increase productivity.
        
        Seriously though, productivity gains these days come from employers investing in automation technology.
        
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        October 8, 2025 7:29pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Perhaps the lawyer could get together with people in he Howard League and set up a business to employ these unfortunate individuals allowing them to demonstrate their ability to be good employees?
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:48am
- Chris2
  
  “Robert Purchase says he’s applied for almost 8000 jobs over the past two years”
  
  This is just out-right lying. That works out at his having supposedly applied for more than 10 jobs every single day, for the last two years.
  
  Impossible, no-way, the Stuff reporter who wrote this article must be a complete moron.
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:19am
- sirknz
  
  I thought most police and MOJ checks only went back 7 years.
  
  I would bet that he interviews poorly and doesn’t dress appropriately for an interview ata minimum.
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:27am
- Handyman
  
  I support the principle of escalating penalties. At present, the penalty for minor crimes (car theft, assault, DIC) is fairly low no matter how many times committed.
  1. First court appearances should be tilted towards restitution and rehabilitation.
  2. Further appearances should be about penalties that sting but not cripple the future.
  3. Any further appearances should be about prevention by being removed from society. This does not have to be done with malice – eg long term home detention or jobs on a prison farm.
  
  The penalty for a tenth DIC should not be the same as for the fifth DIC.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:00am
Yvette

Whakapapa vest
… on 11 August the District Court ruled otherwise. Judge Lance Rowe directed that a Mongrel Mob vest, seized under the Government’s new Gangs Act 2024 and forfeited following a guilty plea, should nevertheless be returned to its owner.
If “forfeited to the Crown” can now mean “returned to the defendant,” the problem is not a single District Court ruling. It is a jurisprudence, seeded in the Supreme Court, that has taught judges and the public alike that even Parliament’s clearest words no longer anchor the law.

If the offender attached such significance to the vest that if is a vital element to his identity and whakapapa, the clarity of the law should mean he has the absolute risk of loosing it by wearing it in public as the law states.

What other way can tikanga, mana and whakapapa change the law for 1 in 5 New Zealanders?
And what legally defined means is there of deciding between those 1 and the other 4 – how do you define the edges of division or segregation?
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October 8, 2025 8:18am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.29am, just the one bike today.

A cool, dry morning in the Capital, a bit of wind about but not too bad for cycling.
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October 8, 2025 8:29am
- Handyman
  
  The bike rack is actually a rare case of Wellington planning for the future.
  According to the business case for the $1billion breakwater/cycle lane from Petone, 1,000 cyclists per day (average wet and fine) will be pedalling to work in the Wellington CBD.
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:45am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I passed that cycleway by, the other day. They are building a gently sloping bridge, steel girders fit to carry a truck, up and over the Petone railway line, so that cyclists can travel along the sea side.
    
    God alone knows what that will be costing.
    
    Meanwhile, Ashburton struggled to get a second bridge funded.
    
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    October 8, 2025 12:37pm
    - Paulus
      
      But Ashburton’s new bridge we are told will start this year !
      
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      October 8, 2025 2:44pm
oldpark

Great news .Let us all rejoice .Tell everyone especially from Greenies .

The Three New Zealanders named Rana Hamida,Youssef Sammour,and of course Sam Leason who were on the Flotilla which was intercepted by Israeli troops have been released and put on a bus to Jordan.Some say their cause was a failure . Asking for a friend .
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October 8, 2025 8:30am
- Handyman
  
  Israel should have helicoptered the gay protestors to a tall building in Gaza, given them a packed lunch, and left them there to meet with their Hamas heroes.
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:39am
  - Albie
    
    Best of luck trying to find a tall building!
    
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    October 8, 2025 3:20pm
- RoboRob
  
  Shame they didn’t keep them.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:03am
- Philview
  
  I heard the lady threw her phone into the sea. One wonders what she thought she had to hide.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:15am
  - muzled
    
    This was reported in The Platform yday by Plunkett.
    
    Her husband was having a wa waa that he couldn’t call her.
    
    As per your average born again protestor – never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
    
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    October 8, 2025 1:12pm
- Sacha
  
  I wonder if they will have to pay their flights home?
  back in the ’60’s they would have hoisted their back packs and walked/hitched their way through to SE Asia and revelled in the adventure. Would only take a couple of years or three if they hurried.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:26pm
Swifty

If blockading, stopping people going about their lawful business, isn’t a criminal offence in NZ then it should be:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360847175/activists-block-entries-christchurch-convention-centre

Instant arrest. No-one is stopping them protesting, but they can’t commit public disorder like this.
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October 8, 2025 8:47am
Libertarians are right

So Biden’s DOJ were spying on 8 Republican Senators without any real justification. That’s 8 out of about 53 (about 15%) so not a small sample size.

And they found nothing? That’s actually impressive.
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October 8, 2025 8:59am
- cmm
  
  8 that we now know about… Quite possibly more.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:00am
- Philview
  
  Per Edward Snowden there was a lot of spying on US citizens by Obama/Biden. I hope Trump pardons him and bring him back from exile.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:12am
cmm

More entitled sobbing that using car parks illegally ends up in a $85 fine.

Shopping at a supermarket gives you no special rights beyond those that the property owner grants you.

The people who own the parking space are entitled to do what the hell they like with it and impose any terms they want. If you don’t like the terms you are fully entitled to take your business elsewhere.

If they want to charge parking fees to park while you shop they are entitled to. Likely bad for business, but they could if they want to.

Where do these people get off deciding they should have say in how property owners allow people to use their property?

I suppose the ideal world for these people would be that the government steps in and mandates that companies allow people to park for as long as they want.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/parking-rules-85-supermarket-carpark-fines-prompt-debate-over-genuine-customer-rules/THP7LEKX7ZCHDKMHBK7OK7LRWE/
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October 8, 2025 9:07am
- Foxfour
  
  Contracts like that , or any contract, has to be fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
  
  “if a genuine customer did receive a breach notice, they were able to appeal it, and, with proof of purchase, the breach notice would be waived.”
  That seems fair.
  But its Auckland so freeloading ‘sovereign parkers’ are everywhere
  
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  October 8, 2025 9:25am
  - cmm
    
    “Contracts like that , or any contract, has to be fair and reasonable in the circumstances.”
    
    Says who? If you don’t like the contract then there is no obligation to enter into it. Just walk away.
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:02am
    - peterwn
      
      There are legal limitations regarding contracts. For example a contract cannot impose a ‘penalty’ (but can dress this up as ‘liquidated damages’), and contracts for sale and purchase must be in writing.
      Apart from these and similar situations there is no need for a contract (except possibly with respect to consumer goods) to be ‘fair and reasonable’.
      
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      October 8, 2025 11:24am
      - peterwn
        
        Oops I meant contracts for sale and purchase for real estate must be in writing.
        
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        October 8, 2025 5:47pm
- nova
  
  These “fines” become dubious for the amount charged. The supermarket or private parking companies cannot legally issue fines. And charging someone for breach of contract means they have to justify the amount charged. They can’t just charge what they feel like, so how do they justify $85. Are they very slow at doing paperwork? Are they charging for the cameras? Is there a very high economic loss due to the time parked?
  
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  October 8, 2025 9:43am
  - peterwn
    
    It seems these penalties have been upheld by the Disputes Tribunal. A good cost accountant could soon provide substantiation for the penalties imposed.
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:26am
- Ipanema69
  
  No cmm, that is not quite correct.
  
  Parking Enforcement Services (PES) is a private company owned by Wilson Parking. They do not issue fines. They issue breach notices.
  
  Historically the easiest way to avoid having to pay was to restrict access to your vehicles registration details on the NZTA website. This prevented private organizations who had direct bulk access the register obtaining access to your name and address.
  
  However NZTA has relatively recently granted PES direct access to the restricted data.
  
  This enables them to run a business model which now usually involves using automatic number plate recognition cameras to mail out breach notices relating to any piece of ground that is used to park cars.
  
  These notices are issued after the fact and PES does not even have to have anyone on site or in a vehicle monitoring compliance with parking terms.
  
  The issue I have with this is as follows.
  
  1) If the carpark is “free” for customers for a set period of time the damage incurred by the carpark owner in the event of a breach are extremely difficult to quantify, but are unlikely to be a uniform $85.00. It’s actually for this reason that PES no longer makes any claim for liquidated damages (they were historically kicked around in the disputes tribunal for this approach), instead the dress the “fine” up as an enforcement charge.
  
  2) Just issuing a breach notice after the fact in this situation does not constitute a remedy. The car park owner has an immediate remedy available, they can have the offending vehicle towed quite legally. They make a choice not to do this for their own reasons. The most likely that it would cost more to do enforcement this way. PES would have to have someone dynamically monitoring the camera and dispatching tow trucks as required.
  
  3) The carpark owner can solve the problem entirely by installing an access control system. It is their choice not to do this!
  
  Governments should not be in the business of assisting private companies to make money.
  
  A couple of years ago my partner found an SUV parked in our driveway. This prevented my partner from leaving for work on time. I immediately called a towing company who showed up 10 minutes later and removed the offending vehicle. My partner then left for work.
  
  If I personally don’t have the ability to search the MVR and issue a breach notice on the basis of that information then PES should not have this ability either.
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:04am
  - Phronesis
    
    Yeah, it’s hard enough to enforce payment of a legitimate 5 figure invoice with a signed contract. There’s clearly issues out there as some outfits I’ve dealt with recently have been very careful about identifying who exactly will be liable for paying their invoice. These car park scams are one step removed from fake invoice scams. I doubt the registered owner of a vehicle can be held to have entered into a private contract when someone else who is allowed to drive the vehicle enters a private parking lot.
    
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    October 8, 2025 10:23am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “If I personally don’t have the ability to search the MVR and issue a breach notice on the basis of that information then PES should not have this ability either.”
    
    I agree. We see cops now and then being censured for accessing peoples details for no official reason.
    
    What is to stop someone monitoring the parking camera spotting an attractive man or woman and then looking up their personal details ?
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:04am
  - imalwaysright
    
    What does the Privacy Act say about giving a private company- in reality, private citizens- access to a database of vehicles and their owners details?
    
    Is it written on vehicle registration forms that the information supplied will be accessible to an unsworn private citizen on minimum wage?
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:34am
  - peterwn
    
    Organisations can be authorised to search the MVR but only for lawful purposes relating to their role. However if they or their employees do searches outside such lawful purposes they would risk losing the accreditation. The main concern here is to ensure personal privacy is protected so that MVR searches are not used for harassment to to facilitate unlawful action against a vehicle owner/ driver (eg finding where they live and going round and beating them up for a road rage incident).
    
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    October 8, 2025 11:34am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “Organisations can be authorised to search the MVR..”
      
      Define organisations.
      
      KB is an “organisation” but we don’t get to search someone’s plate.
      
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      October 8, 2025 1:16pm
    - Ipanema69
      
      The issue with the ANPR cameras operated by PES is that they don’t serve the breach notice on the party that allegedly violated the contract. It just gets mailed to the address of the vehicles registered owner.
      
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      October 8, 2025 2:21pm
  - peterwn
    
    If PES did not have this facility, then PES would simply clamp or tow a vehicle which had previous breaches.
    
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    October 8, 2025 5:51pm
- peterwn
  
  The main offenders are probably assertive females driving upmarket and oversize SUV’s.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:35am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    That’s a bit Karenist, Peter
    
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    October 8, 2025 12:42pm
Philview

I see Stuff are running a poll today and currently has Labour on 47% and Greens on 18% on voting intention. If I owned that organisation I would be concerned that there is very little centre right readership. Businesses should think about the value of advertising on that media forum.
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October 8, 2025 10:16am
- Phronesis
  
  Advertisers are more interested in age demographics. Those numbers suggest that Stuff readership is young and dumb which is just how advertisers like them. I’m currently getting multiple hearing aid ads here on kiwiblog….
  
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  October 8, 2025 10:34am
- RoboRob
  
  Stuff dont seem to care about that. They appear to have decided to use the US model and simply target a single demographic (aka CNN / FOX). It will be interesting to see if restricting their audience to a max of ~2.5m people will be a financially successful move. I think not.
  
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  October 8, 2025 11:02am
MCōs

There’s a story in the paper today about some minor ABs playing in the quarterfinals of the NPC.
I remember reading about Don Clarke, noted fullback in the fifties and sixties, playing a test in the afternoon at Eden Park and then an important club game in the evening for Morrinsville.
Mind you fullbacks didn’t do much running round in those days. Don Clarke was no Christian Cullen.
He could kick goals from inside his own half and when tests were often low scoring affairs he was a match winner
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360847241/all-blacks-release-seven-players-npc-quarterfinals
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October 8, 2025 10:30am
Jack5

Thought Parliament’s web site had been hacked. It includes a heading: “Check out the new demo web site …”

AND:

“The demo website showing what’s planned for NZ Legislation is live!”

AND A CLINCHER:

“Nau mai, haere mai

Welcome to the demonstration NZ Legislation website.”

BUT!

Parliament hasn’t been Minto-ised.

This is about previews of a new Parliamentary web lay-out.

Perhaps some State web designer also has a sense of humour.

The “demo’s” being talked about are demonstrations of a new version of the site.
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October 8, 2025 10:41am
- Paulus
  
  Getting ready for the first national strike if they can get so may people later this month.
  Over 60,000 men women and children so far anticipated.
  Not had a national for over 20 years so the unions are “persuading ” everybody to join them.
  
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  October 8, 2025 2:49pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    That’s going to save a fair bit of the public purse/Taxpayers money.
    
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    October 8, 2025 3:51pm
- F E Smith
  
  I can’t get onto the Parliamentary website. It gets stuck ‘verifying’ my browser. It seems they don’t like my tracking blockers.
  
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  October 8, 2025 5:36pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I’m guessing the site is detecting you are using a VPN as the VPN IP-address you are using has been blacklisted by the site. So they send you around in circles without being honest about what is really going on (IE you are being blocked because you are using a VPN). “Something went wrong. Try again later” is another disingenuous message that is displayed in these cases. Seems to be common (scummy) practice these days. Naughty you not wanting to be tracked and catalogued as being part of this or that cohort.
    
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    October 8, 2025 7:43pm
    - Ghost
      
      they put in extra protection after attacks
      
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      October 8, 2025 7:53pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Which should block attackers, not innocent people who’d prefer not to have their privacy raped by big tech and data brokers.
        
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        October 8, 2025 8:25pm
rouppe

Hamas Oct 7 attacks survivor recalls Gaza captivity 2 years later

“The kitchen floors are stained with blood. People were home at the time. The soldiers here tell us they found bodies that appeared to be executed. People with hands tied behind their backs, mothers holding their small children, bodies decapitated.

Think about that, Chloe, when you talk about genocide.

[Aviva Siegel] remembers arriving in Gaza and seeing Palestinian families cheering and jeering at the wounded hostages.

This is why I don’t want to see any refugees from Gaza brought here.

While Keith stayed there for 484 days, we were tortured, we were starved. They used to eat in front of us. I lost 10 kilos. Keith came home looking like a skeleton. He was just so thin. I couldn’t walk when I came back. I was so ill,” Aviva said.

That doesn’t get mentioned by Chloe either.

Tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed in the aftermath by the Israeli military, which now controls 80% of the Gaza Strip.

I decided to do a bit of maths. Hamas killed at least 1200 Israelis that day. If Hamas did that every day for the two years this had dragged on, the total would be 876,000. Put that in perspective to the numbers killed in Gaza searching for those remaining hostages.

“I’m a witness to the Hamas terrorist touching the girls and doing whatever they wanted. I’m witness of the Hamas terrorists beating one of the girls that was with us and threatening her that they’re gonna kill her just because they thought she was lying,”

Are the Palestinians held in Israel treated like that? Certainly I’ve not seen reports from released Palestinians.

Pro Palestinian protesters make me sick.

[Mod – fixed]
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October 8, 2025 11:50am
- kowtow
  
  Can you believe Thunberg has included an Israeli hostage in photos of ’emaciated’ Gazans.
  
  https://www.timesofisrael.com/thunberg-shares-image-of-emaciated-israeli-hostage-in-post-on-palestinian-prisoners/
  
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  October 8, 2025 12:39pm
- cmm
  
  I think it is erroneous to try make this about number of people killed on each side.
  
  The Oct 7 attack on Israel was really composed of two parts:
  1) Military action against legitimate military targets.
  2) Gratuitous attacks against civilians.
  
  Attacking military targets is OK. Belligerents get killed. That is ok. Put on a uniform and become a soldier and you are a valid target. All the Israeli solders (whether male or female is irrelevant) were valid military targets. All soldiers of all nations understand this.
  
  Attacking civilians for no purpose other than to sow mayhem is just pure terrorism. Civilians killed in these raids (be they men, women or children is irrelevant) – all are not legitimate targets and no military benefit was obtained from this.
  
  Now let’s look at the Gazans killed by Israeli action. As far as I can tell, other than very few incidents of individuals getting out of hand, not a single one of these was targeted at civilians for the purpose of causing civilian casualties. Instead these have been collateral damage in the pursuit of valid military targets.
  
  When Hamas sets up a weapons cache in a civilian hospital or place a tunnel entrance in an apartment block it is no longer a civilian hospital or apartment block. It is now enemy infrastructure and is a legitimate target for the purpose of destroying the Hamas assets and personnel. If the hospital is still in use and civilians get killed – well that’s all on Hamas for trying to hide legitimate targets behind human shields.
  
  So there’s more to it than just comparing numbers. If you really want to then it is only meaningful to compare illegitimate targets. Deaths while pursuing legitimate targets should not not be counted.
  
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  October 8, 2025 12:44pm
  - rouppe
    
    I’m more or less in agreement with your stance.
    
    But good luck having a debate with that nuance with Chloe.
    
    With her, a blunt force comparison is what works, or what you’d have time for before she starts with her “literally genocide” etc.
    
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    October 8, 2025 1:41pm
rjay

If true it appears that Kapa-kingi was demoted because she mis-spent $200000 of Party funds with her son’s outfit.
The speaker says, “Electorate” budget but surely that is not Parliamentary funds?
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CNEFt1WLZ/
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October 8, 2025 12:37pm
My-Gumboot

NZ Herald are Frauds.
So they run an article about a dodgy Real Estate Agent.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland/former-real-estate-agent-aaron-drever-jailed-for-eight-months-for-concealing-income-while-bankrupt/GRCNOW3PIFFGDPRZSZAIJ4MN7M/

The Lead pic is of PM Luxon out front, with the guy in the background, the dodgy guy is working there as a caterer, nothing to do with Luxon, just happens to be in the frame.

And the Nats are below 30%.. Sure, they could be doing better in a lot of areas, but I think the media bias is taking a toll.
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October 8, 2025 1:04pm
- sirknz
  
  You cannot dislike the MSM enough.
  
  Surely they could’ve found another picture of the guy rather than smear Luxon by association of being in the same room as him.
  
  Also, if a disgraced real estate agent who has just got out of prison can get a job, why can’t the guy who had 8000 applications under his belt get a job?
  
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  October 8, 2025 2:37pm
Ghost

I wonder if the police can provide evidence that Keir Starmer isn’t a…….

Britain First ‘Keir Starmer is a wanker!’ Battle Bus seized AGAIN by Manchester Police!
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October 8, 2025 1:05pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Britain First unfurls a “Keir Starmer is a w*nker, beep if you agree” banner on motorway overpass:
  
  https://rumble.com/v6ydkc8–britain-first-unfurls-a-gigantic-keir-starmer-is-a-wanker.html?e9s=src_v1_s%2Csrc_v1_s_m&sci=a6b0a2f7-213b-4df5-8850-f2d88b156ca6
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:08pm
Jack5

Gold fever

Gold has topped $US4,000 an ounce for the first time. This is about $NZ6,900 an ounce. The price has risen more than 50 per cent .

Goldman Sachs is forecasts that gold is likely to reach $US4,900 an ounce by December. That is about $NZ8,450.

The Wall Street Journal reports Goldman Sachs’s Lina Thomas and Daan Struyven said most of the anticipated run-up would be driven by central banks in emerging markets, which “are likely to continue the structural diversification of their reserves into gold.”

Exchange-traded investment funds are also likely to increase their holdings because of an expected cut in American interest rates.

Meanwhile Bitcoin reached a record high of $US126,272 on Monday, with proponents describing it as “digital gold”, protecting against inflation.

Got gold fever? Here’s where to start:

https://www.paydirt.co.nz/
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October 8, 2025 1:20pm
- Jack5
  
  Edit:
  ~~The price has risen more than 50 per cent.~~
  
  Correction: Gold futures prices are on track to rise more than 50 per cent this year.
  
  Apologies for my error.
  
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  October 8, 2025 2:13pm
Swifty

Looks like there is basis to the claims that Kapa-Kingi overspent her parliamentary budget (not election budget) and that this fact has been leaked by TPM leadership:

https://x.com/suitandtie9999/status/1975644902345351662?s=46
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October 8, 2025 1:46pm
Philview

I see the Taxpayer Curia poll today has National in the 20s and Chris Hipkins as preferred PM. The trend is becoming consistent and the Centre Right is in trouble and I think New Zealand is in trouble if the majority believe there is a credible Government in the Left block.
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October 8, 2025 1:52pm
- greybeard
  
  “Chris Hipkins as preferred PM”: that statement alone should tell you how suspect are poll results. Ignore them.
  
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  October 8, 2025 2:34pm
  - MCōs
    
    I always thought Mister F ran a pretty tight ship
    
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    October 8, 2025 3:03pm
- Raphael
  
  They need to figure out a way for Luxon to communicate without sounding completely out of touch.
  
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  October 8, 2025 3:59pm
Swifty

Brits have been totally betrayed by their leaders:

https://x.com/suffragent_/status/1975603027361861925?s=46

Multiculturalism is far, far from their greatest strength – which is instead unity and shared values.

Really sorry to see Afghans named too – talking about kicking your hosts in the teeth.
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October 8, 2025 1:54pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Interesting that iPhones stolen in the West sell at a premium price in China because they won’t have CCP tracking apps on them.
  
  Remind your Lefty friends of this when they assert that China’s government is ‘just another form of democracy’.
  
  http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20vlpwrzwdo
  
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  October 8, 2025 7:25pm
Chuck Bird

Does Luxon accept any responiblity for this? I doubt it.

New poll: National dives into the 20s, NZ First climbs into double digits, centre-left bloc can govern

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-poll-national-dives-into-the-20s-nz-first-climbs-into-double-digits-centre-left-bloc-can-govern/D5AHWPF36FDMTHO7BJDNPB4RKE/
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October 8, 2025 2:07pm
- Ghost
  
  Will,labour accept responsibility for the state the country was left in, the economy, the health sector, all the land mines that are blowing up left by labour
  
  10 3
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  October 8, 2025 2:14pm
  - Foxfour
    
    Economy was booming in 2023
    GDP growth 3-4%, unemployment 3.4%
    The economic crash was engineered by The Cerberus government who bought in a mini budget in Dec 23.
    The public are not fooled by annual food price inflation- released each month- increasing from a low last year to over 5% now
    
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    October 8, 2025 2:22pm
    - Paulus
      
      It is perceived that of the $80 billion Ardern, Robertson, and Orr doing as his Labour appointed committee told him, some $40 billion is in the Motu somewhere, and still unaccounted for – look at the family expensive world wide hoildays being booked and taken so must still be somewhere.
      Let alone the prices of new luxury cars.
      
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      October 8, 2025 3:00pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      GDP includes govt borrowing, with NZ govt debt going up by an eye-watering $26Billion in 2023 or about 6% of GDP – which is a hell of a lot bigger number than 3.4% ‘growth’
      
      So 3.4% growth was really a fall of similar size, by an appallingly incompetent Labour indebting our children to try and buy another term in office.
      
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      October 8, 2025 3:09pm
    - Swifty
      
      What was GDP under Labour in their final years if you remove their debt-fuelled spending splurge?
      
      Any monkey can borrow and spend to make GDP figures look good.
      
      As we saw.
      
      For you to trumpet this as some sort of win is highly misleading.
      
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      October 8, 2025 4:14pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I agree about the debt Labour left the new government with. However, Luxon has not convinced the majority of voters that that is the case.
    
    The majority favour Hipkins over Luxon. Who is to blame for that?
    
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    October 8, 2025 3:01pm
    - Ghost
      
      The majority just see the pain they have at the supermarkets, the pumps, the power, they aren’t interested in politics and they expect instant remedies when changing govts. The pain will get worse
      
      4 1
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      October 8, 2025 3:19pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        So it is the stupid voters’ fault?
        
        1 4
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        October 8, 2025 3:46pm
      - Ghost
        
        Uniformed voters aren’t stupid they just aren’t interested in politics. They are no worse than people like yourself who spread misinformation
        
        4 2
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        October 8, 2025 4:50pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        “they aren’t interested in politics”
        
        Then they are pretty thick as far as I’m concerned.
        
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        October 8, 2025 8:31pm
    - AitchW
      
      CB I blame the media for reporting breathlessly every one of Chippies shrill yaps.
      They accept without question when he tells us that it’s Luxon’s fault that the economy is still in trouble, and that we are losing young people in their droves to Australia.
      They never, ever point out that this government inherited a moribund economy and a hostile public service due to Hipkins’ and Arden’s appalling mis management.
      In fact, the media are as hostile to the government as is the public service.
      
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      October 8, 2025 4:15pm
- wilderbeast
  
  The issue that National fails to grasp is the growing opposition to the status quo. It’s writ large in Brexit, Trump and the current nationalist movement in the UK. In NZ Covid underlined in no uncertain terms that there is a political elite in NZ and eyes have been opened. My conversations with National Party insiders in the last month, including a close family member and ministerial advisor, indicate a serious underestimation of people’s resentment to political elite movements and the sense their views do not matter. To cite an example the in the discussion I had with the ministerial advisor he whinged ceaselessly about the Act party and “time wasted” on the Treaty bill. He said National was instead focused on “putting money in people’s pockets”. He was openly disdainful. The way he presented it he gave zero credence to the more fundamental principle that a lot of people feel they have become second class citizens and that their country is being sold out from under their feet. I suggested to him that in the future, when Tama Potaka and his ilk, leave politics to head up Iwi entities worth billions and owing it all to the taxpayer, that National will continue to be seen as not interested in the rights of everyday Kiwis.
  
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  October 8, 2025 3:40pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Luxon interfered with normal candidate selection to get Potaka in.
    
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    October 8, 2025 4:45pm
    - Ghost
      
      No he didn’t. He has no say in the selection
      
      6 2
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      October 8, 2025 4:48pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Ask the other two candidates.
        
        2 4
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        October 8, 2025 5:08pm
      - Ghost
        
        The leader has no role in the selection, this is just another made up chuck story. You are so good at making up stories that fall apart whenever anyone looks at them, shit you do it weekly with your posts about what you see on tv. Just a few days ago you lied that the race relations commissioner claiming she was “trying to expand her role to include trans“. She wasn’t. She actually made it known to the questions that it was outside of her role. But facts never matter in a chuck story
        
        2 2
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        October 8, 2025 5:24pm
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        Ghost, when Chuck writes about politics in the Waikato region it is best that you read and think carefully. His knowledge of other parts of our country is not so flash.
        I have read his contributions carefully and the man who enjoys a drink or two at The Delta knows what he is talking about. A damned sight more than many in Wellington.
        
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        October 8, 2025 9:48pm
      - Ghost
        
        Pass, when chuck writes he too often makes shit up in what he thinks he has heard or seen, that is far from what actually has been said. As is the case in this, neither of those candidates have spoken out publicly since the selection, nor would they. Nor would the leader get involved in the selection, it didn’t happen expect in chucks mind. Chuck has shown time and time again that even a simple comment in an interview he can either completely screw up, or blatantly lie about what was said. You can trust him, but chuck has shown just about daily he manipulates what he hears, he lies about what he hears or reads, or simply just doesn’t understand what it being said, and really is about as trustworthy as a drunk in a bar that comes across as a bitter old man towards politicians he doesn’t like and lies about those politicians. Oh, and in my time here, I have seen him comment about a politician I did personally know, and what he said was complete bullshit.
        
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        October 8, 2025 9:57pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    “putting money in people’s pockets”.
    
    Rob Muldoon used to claim that it was only what went in your back pocket that mattered to voters, but of course he knew that wasn’t always the case and proved it by supporting the Springbok Tour, knowing what that meant in rural electorates in 1981.
    
    And of course it was one of those non-pocket-book issues, nuclear weapons, that was his downfall in 1984.
    
    “National doesn’t do Culture Wars” vs Trotsky’s “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
    
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    October 8, 2025 7:28pm
MCōs

Here in NZ the minister of Foreign Affairs has had a window broken. Meanwhile in South Carolina, USA, a judge who made a ruling against the Trump administration has lost her house to fire.
Terribly bad luck or maybe arson
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/judge-fire-diane-goodstein-south-carolina-b2839996.html#
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October 8, 2025 3:15pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  https://www.newsweek.com/judge-diane-goodstein-fire-update-as-sled-addresses-arson-claims-10837817
  
  No evidence of arson but a fine MSM smear against the right of politics still performed.
  
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  October 8, 2025 3:20pm
  - MCōs
    
    First sentence of that article
    “Authorities investigating a fire at Judge Diane Goodstein’s South Carolina home have said that they have found no evidence of arson.”
    Typical of the papers I have read
    
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    October 8, 2025 6:39pm
Swifty

Soon we’ll have political killings in New Zealand if this keeps up – and, of course, it will be committed by members of the left.

Their rhetoric has reached fever pitch and when your opponents are literal ‘murderers’ then it doesn’t take much for someone to wish to rid the world of such murderers.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360848061/winstons-foreign-policy-advisor-chased-palestine-protester-and-called-murderer

All leaders and MPs of Labour, the Greens and TPM now have a duty to constantly reinforce to their supporters the need to tone things down. To get some balance, civility and respect back into our national conversations.

It will be interesting to see if they do so.
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October 8, 2025 4:11pm
Swifty

We need more MPs like Nicole McKee:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19k1Hhrpni/?mibextid=wwXIfr

She makes a very pleasant change from the lefty extremists and fanatics.
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October 8, 2025 4:40pm
- F E Smith
  
  Nicole is an absolute gem.
  
  7 0
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  October 8, 2025 5:48pm
Swifty

RIP Graham Bell.

https://x.com/kiwilivesmatter/status/1975721862635397161?s=46

🤣
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October 8, 2025 5:09pm
Ghost

Worth over $100 million, just a 6 months jail sentence and $270,000 restitution

Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris pleaded guilty in an Oklahoma court on Oct. 2 to sex crimes against a girl that started in 1982 and continued for years.

Morris, 64, entered guilty pleas to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child in an Osage County courtroom. He will serve six months in the Osage County jail and then be on probation for nine years and six months, according to a plea agreement outlined by Oklahoma Attorney General Getner Drummond in a news release.

Article
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October 8, 2025 5:59pm
- Ghost
  
  Home detention for this teacher
  
  A former primary school teacher who sent an 11-year-old student nude photographs of herself has been sentenced to home detention.
  
  The woman, who has interim name suppression, was in her 30s when she taught at a primary school in the Auckland region where she met the boy and told him they would “make a good couple”.
  
  Stuff
  
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  October 8, 2025 6:23pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Weird. Having somewhat worked out how women generally operate, it would seem mental issues were greatly at play here.
    
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    October 8, 2025 8:45pm
lifesgood

The latest curia poll bewilders me. Are NZers so thick and so forgetful that they want the country governed by the rabble on the left. Ye Gods!
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October 8, 2025 6:20pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Somewhere in the bowels of National political polling central I’d like to think somebody is attempting to cross reference 2023 right-wing votes with departures from NZ since then, so that some idea of how many RW votes have been lost can be estimated and adjustments made (if possible).
  
  You can be damned sure that the overwhelming proportion of Left voters aren’t leaving.
  
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  October 8, 2025 7:22pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Yes LG very disturbing stuff.
  
  OK I can accept that people are getting pissed off with National not decisively dealing to NZ’s loony woke infestation of the institutions. What I find most disturbing is the fact that at the same time support for ACT is slipping and NZF has gained just a bit. Sadly it appears NZ has a critical mass of barely awake sheeple.
  
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  October 8, 2025 8:16pm
Ghost

Fake doctor tries to take fake aid to Gaza. Fake politician? Tries to claim fake doctor taking the fake aid was abducted.

An ex-Shortland Street actor on board a vessel heading towards Gaza has reportedly been intercepted by Israeli military forces in the Mediterranean Sea.

William Alexander and his partner Ava are among the 90 people aboard The Conscience, which is among the vessels in the Freedom Flotilla approaching Gaza.

Article
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October 8, 2025 9:45pm

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