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December 3, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 03 December 2025

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General Debate

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Nikola Donatello

A short video clip commentary by Bjørn Lomborg on the astronomical cost and futility of New Zealand’s net zero policy.

https://youtube.com/shorts/go_YLqi2DBc?si=fIUwlK35hP1CcDBX
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December 3, 2025 8:00am
- Burtland
  
  There seems to be a concerted effort to send NZ bankrupt by the wokerati …
  
  Climate Commission – net negative emission home goals
  and now Lawyers for Climate Action
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019015261/concern-over-government-commitment-to-paris-agreement
  
  Willis seems to have made a stand that three months ago, ACT had squashed by the Luxon
  
  Willis has confirmed the government had no intention of buying offshore carbon credits to meet the 2030 Paris agreement as part of a “performative awards ceremony” even if that meant it would breach its commitment
  
  Luxon – “We’re not leaving Paris. It would only damage and punish and hurt our farmers.”
  
  Expect there will be a sedious move by the Leftards to dob 100% Pure AotearoaNZ in to the EU, UN and UK over Labours over ambitious climate promises.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:51am
- Simon
  
  Climate fraud. Massive transfer of wealth from the working to the GAE 1% via green fake energy.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:33am
peterwn

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360906781/tova-obrien-labour-finance-mps-risk-looking-more-crack-pot-crack-team (not paywalled, thanks very much, Stuff).
I cannot believe my ears. It seems that Tova has experienced some sort of epiphany.
This is Scrutiny Week on the Parliamentary calendar where opposition MP’s can hold Government Ministers and officials to account.
Tova O’Brien explained that [yesterday’s] fiery Finance hearing risked undermining Labour’s attempts to present itself as a government-in-waiting ready to steer the country out of a cost of living crisis. Three senior Labour took on Nicola with boorish heckling behaviour while Nicola remained composed. Tova effectively said Labour was unfit to govern as things stand.
Golly, if there is more such even handed journalism from Tova, I might even take out an electronic sub for Stuff/The Post.
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December 3, 2025 8:03am
- greybeard
  
  You know what they say about swallows and summer…
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:13am
  - peterwn
    
    I thought it was spring rather than summer. One can hope eternal.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:19am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      It became summer on Monday did it not?
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:47am
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    Stopped clocks, the list goes on
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:27am
  - Colville
    
    I just know a pair of the little bastards keep trying to nest in my garage!
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:54am
    - pdm
      
      Colville we had that trouble in our car port years ago when we lived in Waipawa. Eventually I got rid of them by pulling the nest out as soon as they started and then spraying the area around it with fly spray.
      
      Took a while but eventually they gave up and went and tormented someone else.
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:11am
      - David Garrett
        
        pdm: You were tormented by a family of swallows nesting up against the ceiling of your garage? You must be a man who is very easy to anger…
        
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        December 3, 2025 1:53pm
  - Positan
    
    I guess there comes a time when journalistic credibility becomes far more important than peddling a positive slant on the inexplicable gyrations of utterly useless MPs..
    
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    December 3, 2025 1:11pm
- Nikola Donatello
  
  It was interesting that Nicola Willis said that New Zealand would under no circumstances buy carbon credits offshore to enable the nation to meet its 2030 Paris Obligations.
  
  Good job.
  
  To be honest I don’t even know what a change of government with Greens in Cabinet could do to meet the 2030 targets. They could destroy the economy. Think $5 per litre petrol. Or spend circa $20 billion in the Philippines and Belarus to buy carbon credits. Maybe.
  
  What gets me is that the 2030 targets were voluntary. Nations could essentially offer what they could. China offered to massively increase emissions. That became their “target”.
  
  New Zealand could have offered a very modest contribution with a carve out for the agricultural sector. The Greens would have gone insane but the UN would have gone along.
  
  What a mess.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:29am
  - kowtow
    
    What’s this talk of “carve out”.
    
    That’s stupid too.
    
    Just bin the scam entirely .
    
    Relax and enjoy the holocene.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:51am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Willis has said for some time they will not be paying for credits, hopefully that puts to bed some on here that keep shouting that we are in for 20 billion, it’s not going to happen.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:52am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      The 20 billion liability is real. New Zealand has entered into an international agreement that has generated said liability. The Minister can say that we are not going to finance the liability by paying other countries for the deficit. However unless the Government withdraws from the Paris Accord the liability remains. Treasury will both record and monitor the liability until it is rescinded.
      
      Pointing out the size of the mess is not “shouting” about it.
      
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      December 3, 2025 9:23am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        As she keeps saying, they do not need to pay it and they will not, this has been echoed for more than a year by ministers yet here you are saying you know better
        
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        December 3, 2025 11:49am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Yes I do know better. So does the Secretary to the Treasury who just announced that they are going to calculate the liability.
        
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        December 3, 2025 7:25pm
  - AitchW
    
    The Greens would cheerfully destroy the economy if it meant no more nasty farms or industry or nasty foreign currency.
    We can all frolic in the meadows of wildflowers and give thanks to Gaia for her bounty.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:52am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Then the Greens will complain that we “don’t have the medicines that Australia has” and the waiting list for MRI scans is too long.
      
      I’m not even joking.
      
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      December 3, 2025 9:25am
    - Boy Geoff
      
      Aitch, yeah right! Ricardo might get his hands filthy by doing that!
      
      It would be a bit too dirty for Chloe too I would imagine, but she might celebrate it from afar while attending vital environmental conferences overseas…
      
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      December 3, 2025 9:29am
      - nathie
        
        Presumably flying by business class, I mean “why not” if her Greenwashing globalists are also doing the same?
        
        Who knows one day she might aspire to using a private jet like they do! A small reward for saving the planet, of course.
        
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        December 3, 2025 11:20am
      - Raphael
        
        Ahhh, but comrade, you don’t understand that some are more equal than others. The hardworking members of the Politburo cannot be expected to soil their hands.
        
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        December 3, 2025 1:56pm
    - Boy Geoff
      
      And furthermore, do you seriously think some middle-aged karen who votes Green because it’s the morally pure thing to do, would have any genuine expectation of giving up the creature comforts that hubby works so hard for…?
      
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      December 3, 2025 9:48am
      - NothingLeft
        
        that (more likely ex) hubby works so hard for…?
        
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        December 3, 2025 3:58pm
    - I remember when
      
      ‘We can all frolic in the meadows of wildflowers’
      
      except after they get parched in the middle of summer and ignite, for whatever reason.
      
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      December 3, 2025 10:35am
    - kowtow
      
      Meadows of mind altering ‘herbs’ more likely.
      
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      December 3, 2025 12:36pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    Why is that a good job? If the same amount of money will buy more emissions reductions overseas than it will in New Zealand, or if the same amount of emissions reduction costs less overseas than it costs in New Zealand, why would you want to insist on the less efficient approach?
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:05am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Yes you are correct if the obligation is to be met. It would be more efficient to pay Indonesia to reduce emissions on our behalf.
      
      However my assumption is that New Zealand will default on its international obligations to the UNFCCC. That is now by far the most likely scenario.
      
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      December 3, 2025 10:40am
- redeye
  
  O’Brien writes
  
  Likewise the 4 minutes and 30 seconds that Te Pāti Maori co-leader Rawiri Waititi questioned the minister in which he highlighted – and arguably showed the government up for – the disparity between the government, on the one hand, celebrating the Maori economy growing faster than the economy as a whole, and on the other, removing targeted funding for Maori specific programmes and the reality of Maori unemployment outstripping the general population.
  
  Is it really showing the government up to highlight the Maori economy is growing faster than the country’s economy, so they should keep up extra money for Maori?
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:03am
  - pdm
    
    I am not sure about this Maori economy.
    
    Surely it is only a number of businesses with Maori owners operating in the economic conditions of every other business in the same markets within New Zealand.
    
    Racially based tax rates and perhaps other Government handouts are therefore all that provides their advantages.
    
    One law for all would therefore equalise that.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:17am
    - Don Beckett
      
      If the Maori economy is performing well above the national economy, why do Maori still need handouts? I thought the purpose of the “Maori Economy” was for Maori generally to be self sufficient.
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:30am
    - Fender
      
      I thought government institutions had to legally make sure that a certain percentage of their tenders and suppliers were Maori companies which has caused alot of companies to spend time and energy trying to make themselves fit into the trough
      
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      December 3, 2025 1:14pm
  - Hugh Jarse
    
    If the Maori economy had to support the amount of services for Maori that the national economy has to it wouldn’t last long. If whitey businesses got a cheap tax rate etc like Maori businesses they might be flying too. Tova then Jessica and Jenna weren’t exactly known for their analytical ability.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:21am
- Simon
  
  National also unfit to govern. So there we are.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:34am
  - peterwn
    
    Please discuss.
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:53am
    - leoj
      
      Unfit due to weakness and wokeness.
      
      Also, far too slow, as their Rates Cap bill proves. These slow bastards want to wait four years to implement the bill. They have the votes and should do it NOW!
      
      I tell you, they are weak, slow and UNFIT.
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:04am
- oldpark
  
  Good one peterwn.
  Would complete the double if whoever they are and employed by “Stuff” when daily they try to be funny ala cartoonist .What a disaster .
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:47am
- R
  
  Tovar has become mother; she now lives in the real world. A period of enlightenment has descended upon her
  
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  December 3, 2025 10:59am
- Paulus
  
  Won’t last very long – like a leopard she cannot change her spots.
  Sure her colleages, as she is Political number one will welcome the competition, to see who can be the greatest epitome of disgraceful behaviour !
  Welcome back Tova.
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:53pm
Scott

Well many people have been fooled by the latest edition of Russia, Russia, Russia – the second strike on the drug boat, on the survivors in the water that had “surrendered”.

According to the New York Times, no friend of the administration, the second strike was ordered by Admiral Bradley on the disabled vessel because:
“The two officials questioned whether the surviving people were Admiral Bradley’s intended target in the second strike, as opposed to the purported drugs and the disabled vessel. They argued that the purported cargo remained a threat and a lawful military target because another cartel-associated boat might have come to retrieve it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/us/hegseth-drug-boat-strike-order-venezuela.html

Hegseth did not give Admiral Bradley further orders after the operation commenced. So what we have is an armed engagement in which more than one shot was fired, and needed, to destroy the drug boat.

“The administration has argued the strikes are nevertheless lawful because Mr. Trump has “determined” that the United States is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels.”

As usual these stories are 90% BS. It’s revealing when even the NY Times moves to debunk them.

And I would add this. I believe that the USA and Western civilisation generally is in a fight for its very existence. So when drug boats are destroyed and Iranian nuclear facilities are bombed I’m going to support that. That’s why I’m a Trump supporter. He fights. And I would rather have him than all of the weak leaders that never fight, people like Macron and Trudeau and Starmer.

So I’m giving Trump and Hegseth wide latitude because they fight for western civilisation. There’s plenty of nations that have succumbed and they’ve become ethno states, narco states and ultimately failed states. I don’t want that for us. Western civilisation is worth fighting for.
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December 3, 2025 8:03am
- Ghost
  
  US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorised an admiral to conduct multiple strikes that killed 11 people on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics in September, the White House has confirmed, insisting the attack that has come under bipartisan scrutiny was lawful.
  
  Article
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:09am
  - sirknz
    
    They can’t even get Hegseth’s title right, he is the Secretary for War, he is in charge of the Department of War.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:45am
    - Ghost
      
      Doesn’t change the white house confirming Pete Hegseth authorized multiple strikes.
      
      Interesting, some people don’t like the white house confirming that
      
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      December 3, 2025 10:10am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        You have any link to anyhting at all to support you statement?
        
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        December 3, 2025 11:39am
      - Ghost
        
        Ummm, try clicking on the linked article
        
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        December 3, 2025 12:31pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        If the strike to destroy the cargo was legitimate then firing two missiles to ensure the cargo was totally destroyed was also legitimate.
        
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        December 3, 2025 5:32pm
    - I remember when
      
      Is the question “What would have happened if there was a lawful attempt to detain the vessel?”
      
      Is it reasonable to expect that they (the occupants of said vessel) would have resorted to use of firearms?
      
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      December 3, 2025 10:43am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      No, he is both
      
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      December 3, 2025 4:20pm
  - leoj
    
    Hegseth is doing God’s work eliminating drug traffickers.
    
    Bravo to him and Trump.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:06am
    - Ghost
      
      Hamas claim they’re doing Allah’s work, as do any other Islamic terrorist group.
      
      You do realize right that these actions tell the USA enemies to just kill any wounded or prisoners?instead of looking that at couple of wounded drug runners were killed, think about what this could result in and how you’d like injured nz military treated
      
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      December 3, 2025 12:39pm
      - leoj
        
        Too easy.
        
        Drug traffickers deserve it.
        
        Did I mention NZ military?
        
        No.
        
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        December 3, 2025 1:07pm
      - Kevin
        
        In March 1943, at the battle of the Bismarck Sea, the U.S. Airforce attacked a convoy of IJN composed of 8 destroyers, 8 troop transports, and slaughtered them. 2890 died. It is recorded that the aircraft were ordered to eliminate men in the water, to prevent the reinforcement by survivors of the Imperial Japanese Army in PNG, where success by either side was not certain.
        
        200,000 Americans dead per year from drugs, is a war. And success is not certain.
        Context.
        
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        December 3, 2025 3:55pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        You’re assuming the purpose of the second missile was to ensure the death of all the crew rather than to ensure the destruction of all the cargo but have not provided evidence to show that.
        Never assume as fact that which must be supported by evidence.
        
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        December 3, 2025 5:36pm
      - Ghost
        
        You should take your own advice and not assume something
        
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        December 3, 2025 6:09pm
      - Ghost
        
        Guess my comment about how we would hope our military personal are treated went right over your head, not surprised.
        
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        December 3, 2025 6:08pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        US military in an attack aircraft from the world’s biggest carrier take out something a bit like a 10m Bayliner in international waters on the other side of the world. Possibly half a dozen bad fella killed give or take a bit. All it took was a couple of Hellfire missiles at SUS150k each fired from a plane that costs a few tens of thousands per hour to keep in the air and flying from a carrier with daily running costs in the tens – if not hundreds – of millions.
        
        Some infinitesmal fraction of drugs en route to the US maybe destroyed. Benefit/cost ratio looks a but sad.
        
        There has to be a reason why we care – it’s micro small stuff compared to Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and some other places that I don’t remember, but I guess we are all free to choose what knots our panties …. 🙂
        
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        December 3, 2025 7:00pm
      - Ghost
        
        International waters for now.
        
        Trump says land strikes in Venezuela will ‘start very soon’
        
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        December 3, 2025 7:18pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        So the Donald is going to start a land war in Venezuela. US track record with land wars is not all that flash – Grenada worked OK but Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were a bit sad. At least he’ll have Honduras and El Salvador on his side ….
        
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        December 3, 2025 7:37pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        Ghost, none of your subsequent points are counter arguments.
        If you DON’T think the purpose of the second strike was to kill the survivors then what DO you think its purpose was?
        If you DO think the purpose of the second strike was to kill the survivors then what is your evidence for that?
        
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        December 3, 2025 8:01pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Which God are you referring to?
      
      Hindu, Christianity(Catholic, Anglican etc etc) Judaism, Islam?
      
      What about Buddhism(Belief systems without Gods). Who are against killing except to obtain food.
      
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      December 3, 2025 4:41pm
- Cassandra
  
  The key, Scott, is Western civilisation. Civilisation. Killing helpless enemy is not part of that. See my comments below. Even Pres Trump questions the second strike.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:12am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Yep, seems a bit much.
    The US has form for this.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/yemenis-drone-strike-turned-wedding-funeral-n5781
    https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/obama-drone-strikes-congress-approval-civilian-casualties-0b7ac8
    Nothing will happen.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:22am
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Yeah, Obama was a big fan of double tapping.
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:28am
  - kowtow
    
    Civilisation , western civilisation was saved by carpet and fire bombing our enemies cities . Women ,children , disabled , forced labourers , refugees ,PoW’s ,the lot,all went up in fire and smoke .
    
    A couple of drug traffickers who don’t give a shit about their numerous victims , while they make a fortune .
    
    Who cares . I don’t.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:57am
    - leoj
      
      Amen! – a million times…..
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:07am
    - Ian Boag
      
      western civilisation was saved by carpet and fire bombing our enemies cities
      
      FWIW the Americans looked into this after the war and came to the conclusion that area bombing didn’t make people want to give up. They (Americans) were never all that keen on it anyway and put more effort into bombing industrial targets. Not to say they weren’t the daytime bits of Hamburg-round-the-clock in 1943.
      
      Until quite late in the war the Pom night bombing folk couldn’t hit anything smaller than the middle of a city ….
      
      The “not-discouraged” thing happened with the Blitz in 1940 but that was because the Poms were brave and steadfast dudes. Germans were a bit like that too even though what they endured made the Blitz a very minor sideshow.
      
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      December 3, 2025 7:27pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘came to the conclusion that area bombing didn’t make people want to give up’
        
        The residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki might disagree with that.
        
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        December 3, 2025 7:56pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Make of it what you will ….
        
        United States: United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS, 1944–1947)
        
        The most detailed postwar study came from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, which interviewed thousands of Germans and examined production records and morale reports.
        Main findings on morale:
        Bombing did not break German civilian morale
        It did not cause mass rebellion or surrender pressure
        
        and
        
        Britain: The RAF’s Bomber Command Assessment
        The RAF conducted internal reviews through Bomber Command and later official historians.
        Official RAF position afterward:
        Area bombing devastated cities
        It tied up German resources in civil defence
        But it did not collapse German morale
        The British government was reluctant to publish some of these results immediately because they conflicted with wartime public claims.
        
        Go figure
        
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        December 3, 2025 9:11pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Kowtow
      On that ideological basis. Then wipe out all the poppy farmers in Afghanistan.
      
      Oops, no the CIA paid Afgan poppy farmers big bucks to grow more poppies.
      
      Had to laugh when you say,
      
      A couple of drug traffickers who don’t give a shit about their numerous victims , while they make a fortune .
      
      You are delusional if you think those on the boats are making a fortune. They are just drug mules. I suggest they are being paid a relative pittance.
      
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      December 3, 2025 7:52pm
  - Colville
    
    Cassandra.
    No one seems to piss and moan about cargo ships taking out Houthi pirates without trial..? What’s the difference here? The pirates in their boat in the water hasn’t actually done anything bad.. Yet… And they regularly get shot to shit.
    
    Isn’t this just a case of them playing silly games so they win silly prizes?
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:02am
    - Cassandra
      
      No. The first strike was fine by me. The second was not, according to Pres Trump and I agree with him.
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:34am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      You’re wrong about the pirates.
      
      If they approach your ship and they are armed, it’s death to them.
      
      It’s the law.
      
      In the video’s I have seen confirmation that they are armed happens before they are shot to shit.
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:41am
  - Ghost
    
    I agree with you. I wonder how people would feel if one of our peace keepers was injured, enemy comes up and puts a gun to his head and kills him.
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:19am
    - Jake Dee
      
      What about blowing up ISIS oil tankers and refineries in Syria?
      There’s nothing wrong with oil and the men killed may not have even been ISIS, but they were supplying them with money by their actions.
      
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      December 3, 2025 10:06pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    Imagine if the Russians or the Chinese were destroying vessels and extrajudicially killing the crews in international waters (or even in territorial waters). It’s quite easy to imagine that we’d point to how diabolical the Russian and Chinese were, even if they too claimed that the targets were “drug smugglers.”
    
    Instead, in this case, the US behaving in this way is saving Western civilisation (quite how exactly, we don’t know).
    
    Let me tell you, the actual enemies of Western civilisation are firmly within, not without (not in Venezuela nor Iran, nor even in Russia or China).
    
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    December 3, 2025 1:45pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I’m pretty sure the Chinese and Russians would have no qualms in making the minions moving hard drugs or hard drug precursors destined for their countries “collateral damage”, just to set an example to others who might try.
      
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      December 4, 2025 3:57pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    The lesson of the last 80 years regarding warfare for the west is that you mostly can’t win wars unless you are prepared to match your opponents tactics. If they intimidate the populace you have to do worse. Drug Cartels are notoriously brutal – as a result of their fights with each others and efforts to intimidate the populace. They’ve killed millions over the last few decades through direct violence and deadly drugs.
    
    Give no quarter.
    
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    December 3, 2025 4:04pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Two points here.
    1) Did you notice that you elided between “Western Civilization” and “Civilization” as if they are one and the same?
    They’re not.
    2) You still haven’t shown that the purpose of the attacks was to kill narco-traffickers rather than to destroy all the narcotics regardless of the death of the traffickers.
    It’s an essential difference.
    Stopping the cartels by destroying or degrading their narcotics is not “killing a helpless enemy”. The narco cartels are enormously rich and powerful and have killed, directly and indirectly about a million Americans in the last 20 years, that’s the other side of the equation. It is justified, and even mandatory to kill in order to save lives.
    You are under no obligation to stop halfway through a legitimate attack just because the enemy was wounded during the first part of it. That itself maybe a crime.
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:55pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Additional,
    There’s good reason to suggest that the target of the attacks was the drugs rather than the relatively low level cartel sailors on those boats. Specifically, if the American goal was to kill low level cartel members then they could have killed a lot more than the ~50 they’ve killed so far.
    The DEA, FBI etc. must have the names and addresses of tens of thousands of narco soldiers and workers.
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:10pm
- Tom Barker
  
  You are aware, Scott, are you not, that Trump has just ordered a man convicted of cocaine smuggling on a massive scale to be released from his Honduran prison? Saving western civilisation, one crime at a time.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:46am
  - Scott
    
    Tom Barker – no I am not aware of a new story denigrating Trump.
    Please remember that the following stories all turned out to be BS:
    – the Steele dossier
    – the pee tape
    – Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election
    To name just a few.
    
    So check the story. Make sure it’s correct. And write this down – Trump was right. About everything 😎
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:29am
    - Ghost
      
      How can you not be aware, hell, i even posted the story when it broke. It’s been well reported. This is your problem, you refuse to hold Trump accountable for his actions, just like the people who protected Biden. Honest supporters of Trump actually support him for the good he does and criticize the bad.
      
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      December 3, 2025 12:47pm
      - Scott
        
        Ghost – how can I have neglected to follow your every post? What’s wrong with me that I didn’t follow every post you ever make?
        
        Amd how can I fail to be convinced of the latest outrage against Trump when it’s all BS?
        Trump was right. About everything. 😎
        
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        December 3, 2025 1:06pm
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    You want to add any detail to that statement?
    
    Like it was a set-up by the Biden administrtation.
    
    Like all the other BS prosecutions they pulled during their term in office.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:08pm
    - Mike
      
      Please show how Juan Orlando Hernandez was ‘set up’.
      
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      December 3, 2025 3:50pm
    - RichardX
      
      Evidence of your claim would be worth looking at. Do you have any, other than Trump saying it?
      
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      December 3, 2025 4:18pm
- AitchW
  
  Yup. Trump is a bombastic blustering clown but, compared to the left wing leaders of France, the UK, Australia, and Canada he is a great statesman!
  The UK in particular is experiencing what we did under Ardern. Starmer will be remembered as the greatest wrecker in UK history in the same way that the last Labour government here is.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:56am
  - Interested Party
    
    Why is he a clown? He’s a very high achieving one if so – in business, entertainment (The Apprentice), and politics.
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:54am
  - Northshoredoc
    
    ‘Yup. Trump is a bombastic blustering clown but, compared to the left wing leaders of France, the UK, Australia, and Canada he is a great statesman!’
    
    I was thinking the opposite in that Trump’s bizarre rambling speeches, frequent changing of his mind often in the space of a few days and closeness to a number of very ‘non-western’ leaders has made the week lefties in some other western countries look like great statesman in comparison and alienated quite a high proportion of the citizenry of other western counries.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:23am
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    The UK is fucked.
    
    Remeber Lucy Connelly, the woman sent to prison for a year because of 1 mean tweet.
    
    Her daughter has been banned from going to school.
    
    1984 was supposed to be a warning, not a how-to manual.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:42am
- Simon
  
  lol – fight for western civilisation. NZ can’t even deport Indians who fake their drivers licenses.
  
  Combined with special rights for Maori. No one is going to war in NZ over this garbage
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:36am
- MCōs
  
  This is hard to argue with, but I’m sure some people will square the circle
  https://x.com/jamessurowiecki/status/1995919950003757362?s=61
  
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  December 3, 2025 12:27pm
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    Look at the detail.
    
    Prosecuted by Biden and Harris who kept doing deals with criminals until they got one to go with the narrative they wanted.
    
    On a par with the people they imprisoned for being involved with Trump and the Russian interference.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:17pm
- jacthecat
  
  How was it an ‘armed engagement’. What arms were displayed as being used by the people on the speedboat?
  
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  December 3, 2025 12:57pm
- Jake Dee
  
  This explanation makes a lot more sense than the Hegseth said “Kill ’em all and take no prisoners!” narrative we’ve been seeing recently.
  Destroying the enemies’ supply lines is perfectly legitimate, having enemy soldiers sitting on top of those supplies should be taken into consideration but it doesn’t grant them immunity from attack.
  Calculation will vary of course, but a Fast Boat like we’ve been seeing attacked could carry 1 ton of cargo, if the cargo is cocaine that could be 20-30 million $USD. The calculation is then what damage to your people could be done when that cocaine hits the streets and the money gets to the cartels. That gets balanced against the lives of the crew (who are your enemies).
  Again, the calculations of whether or not to shoot the boats or try to intercept and capture them varies and would be based on facts I just don’t know (and neither do you) but if the calculation is something like, if we deploy our own ships and helicopters we might be able to capture 3 tons of cocaine, but if we hit them at long range we can destroy 10 tons, then that decision could be moral and correct, even if it kills 50 enemy foot soldiers and sailors.
  The other side of the equation that we are not seeing is the number of Americans killed directly by the narco cartels and indirectly by their drugs.
  A similar situation was destroying ISIS oil refineries and truck in ISIS occupied Syria. The differences are that oil is a legitimate commodity in a way that cocaine is not and a lot of those workers and drivers killed would not even have been ISIS, just men trying to make a living and getting money for their families. But they were also making money for ISIS and so, regrettably perhaps, they became legitimate secondary targets because they were sitting on top of enemies supplies that were legitimate primary targets.
  Whether or not the narco cartels should have been given the status of terrorist organizations, is a legitimate point of debate. But once that decision has been made, and it was made at a higher point in the chain of command than the officers who pushed the button on the missile launchers, destroying their supplies, even at the cost of human lives is legitimate.
  
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  December 3, 2025 5:29pm
Chuck Bird

Sean Plunket interviews Dr Happer on The Platform. The video is 20 minutes.

Dr William Happer Previews His Trip To NZ To Talk Climate Change Truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy0Fv4hiRVw
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December 3, 2025 8:05am
- JohnRidd
  
  Will Happer was also on Leighton Smith’s podcast today.
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/podcasts/the-leighton-smith-podcast/
  
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  December 3, 2025 6:46pm
Cassandra

We had a brief discussion here earlier regarding the murder of two drug smugglers who had survived the destruction of their boat. A second rocket killed them both. In my opinion that’s a war crime. Most of the comments and ticks disagreed.

Let’s be clear – this is bayoneting the wounded. In some circumstances that’s justified. A NZ soldier was badly wounded by a “dead” CT in 1970, necessitating months of painful treatment (shot in the jaw) which could have been avoided by shooting the CT again as you walked past. The drug smugglers were not in that situation. There was no way that they could threaten the US forces. That makes it murder. No Western country has the death penalty for drug smuggling. However, the first rocket is justified. A second only rarely. This one was not.

President Trump says that the second rocket should not have been fired. A Republican congressman has called for an enquiry. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt about the facts; the question is who ordered the second strike? The Secretary of War (“Kill them all”) or the Admiral?

PS Pentagon War Manual prohibits “hostilities based on no survivors”.
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December 3, 2025 8:08am
- peterwn
  
  Ordinary crimes may have been committed, but it is not a war crime if the craft is not a military craft and are not in a valid service uniform. In WW2, civilians who temporarily assisted the military (eg manufacturers’ engineers and technicians involved with systems on warships) were temporarily enlisted into the forces at a rank appropriate to their calling and issued with a uniform. Only then were they protected by the Geneva Convention.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:16am
  - Mike
    
    Nonsense.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:54am
    - AitchW
      
      Well reasoned and explained Mike. It’s refreshing to see an opinion backed up with fact. (Yes, that’s sarcasm in case you were wondering.)
      
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      December 3, 2025 8:58am
    - Mike
      
      Perhaps I should enlarge on that. Civilians and enemy combatants (that latter status is doubtful in these circumstances) are not available for summary execution because they are not wearing a uniform.
      
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      December 3, 2025 9:31am
  - Cassandra
    
    Peter: I suspect you may be right, although it’s a split hair, isn’t it? I think international law regards a navy blowing up defenceless people as a major crime. American military law certainly does. Behind the scenes I bet a JAG team is investigating this flat out.
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:37am
  - cmm
    
    I agree with Mike for once.
    Nonsense.
    
    War crimes are not reserved for attacks on military targets. Attacks on civilians can be war crimes.
    
    The Geneva Convention is not the only body of law covering war crimes.
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:26am
  - cmm
    
    Hegseth is now reaching for the “fog of war” defence which is a clear admission that what they did was wrong.
    
    Fog of war is a valid excuse for doing something wrong if there truly was a “fog”.
    
    For example “Fog of war” is a valid excuse if, say, a hospital was bombed in error (eg. bomb failure or human error causing the misidentification of a building) or was bombed because there was credible intelligence that there were belligernets using the hospital as a base but that was later shown to be incorrect.
    
    However if there was insufficient fog then the “fog of war” excuse does not fly. It does not, for example, typically excuse confusion in the issuing of orders over rules of engagement or such.
    
    I was not there or have full insight into the situation, but circling back and attacking a wreck would seem challenging to attribute to “fog of war”.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:16am
- imalwaysright
  
  “In my opinion that’s a war crime. ”
  
  There’s an extremely high probability that similar actions happened in Gaza.
  Is the Israeli Military guilty of war crimes?
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:28am
  - cmm
    
    Pretty much every military has performed actions like these on occasion. And yes, they are war crimes whether you generally like the people doing them or not.
    
    Anyone that thinks “their side” is above reproach is dreaming.
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:28am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Its, hopefully, not about whose motives one agrees with, rather its about maintaining an unemotional perspective of all conflicts.
      
      As you allude to, every conflict will breed its own rules of engagement to an extent, therefore it is important to be dispassionate and attempt to judge all on the same scale.
      
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      December 3, 2025 1:06pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    Yes, of course they have committed what would be war crimes by any reasonably objective standard. But like the Americans, labeling your victims as “terrorists” (which is a very deliberate and purposive policy) affords much greater latitude as to who you may kill with little or no consequence, other than very bad PR.
    
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    December 3, 2025 1:53pm
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      You are wrong on every level.
      
      Not even close to being war crimes.
      
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      December 3, 2025 4:26pm
- NoFax
  
  The target was the boat; therefore, if the first strike didn’t destroy the boat and its cargo, then it was a legitimate target. The “one missile rule” is new, nonsensical, and just a club for the Democrats to attack President Trump.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:48am
- Christopher Thomson
  
  Calling it murder. Already decided despite there being plenty of counter-arguement.
  
  And I rather like this lawyers opinion.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aeq7jecaPNM
  
  Particularly where Hegseth is quoted having the best criminla and military lawyers up and down the chain of command.
  
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  December 3, 2025 12:35pm
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    I would put money on there being nothing illegal about the strike.
    
    Just another piece of hysteria from a knowingly biased and dishonest media.
    
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    December 3, 2025 12:46pm
  - RichardX
    
    Do you know how many fewer lawyers there are providing advice on what is a lawful order in the US military now compared to 12 months ago?
    
    Do you know how many fewer Inspectors General there are providing advice and oversight to the US military now compared to 12 months ago?
    
    Do you know how many flag officers have left the US military in the last 12 months?
    
    If these types of personnel changes happened in Russia or China or N Korea, it would be described as a purge. I’m struggling to find an example of a purge that has had a net positive geopolitical impact.
    
    Is Hegseth being quoted as having “the best lawyers” the same as Trump appointing Habba & Halligan as prosecutors?
    
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    December 3, 2025 1:34pm
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      150 flag oficers have been disengaged.
      
      All dead wood with no military future.
      
      Good job too. Or be like the UK with more admirals than fighting vessels.
      
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      December 3, 2025 9:48pm
  - Mike
    
    “I have the best lawyers”, while suitably Trumpian, might not be the final word on the matter.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:13pm
- Christopher Thomson
  
  Note that this event happend 3 months ago.
  
  But only now is it being the subject of a dishonest media beat-up.
  
  Right at the time when there is an important election being held.
  
  Co-incidence? I think not.
  
  This will be put in the same basket as all the other lies and dishonest twisting of the truth that the media has been spewing out.
  
  For example, did Trump really say to put Liz Chaney up against a wall and execute her?
  
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  December 3, 2025 12:59pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Again, as mentioned above to Ghost, you’re assuming the purpose of the second missile was to ensure the death of all the crew rather than to ensure the destruction of all the cargo but have not provided evidence to show that.
  Never assume as fact that which must be supported by evidence.
  How can 1 missile to destroy the ship and cargo even at the cost of the crew be legitimate but 2 missiles to ensure the total destruction of the boat an cargo be illegitimate?
  I don’t think this is a case of “bayoneting the wounded” at all, and even bayoneting the wounded can be justified if it’s needed to complete a lawful mission.
  Do you remember the scene from “Saving Private Ryan” ? (and yes I know there’s a danger in treating Hollywood stories as fact but I believe this is a legitimate point).
  The American officer sends a runner to contact another unit, the Germans hit him and keep pouring shots into him.
  “Why’d they keep shooting him?”
  “As long as there’s breath in his lungs he still carries the message, we’d do the same thing”.
  So that’s shooting a wounded man to ensure the mission.
  Fire 1 missile and it’s a solid hit and men die, mission accomplished. If it’s slightly off the mark then it’s a second missile and some wounded men die, but then it’s also mission accomplished
  Why is the first right but the second wrong?
  You’re requiring that a lawful mission stops once the enemy has wounded and that’s never been the case.
  
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  December 3, 2025 6:05pm
peterwn

The new Melbourne metro underground railway line has just been opened. The Firefighters Union has been highly critical of safety precaution claiming that the tunnels were a safety hazard. Some firefighters staged a protest by trespassing in the tunnels presumably using keys entrusted to the fire service. They claimed they were allowed to carry out unannounced inspections. Now, even railway staff cannot enter such areas without abiding by safety protocols (so they do not get hit by a train). The operator is of course bound by health and safety legislation to establish proper safety protocols for people to enter the hazardous areas. Firefighters’ management would also expect their employees to abide by safety protocols when firefighting in hazardous areas like railway tunnels and electrical substation, even though this hampers firefighting operations.
Such trespassing by some firefighters is in serious breach of their duties and health and safety obligations no matter how noble the cause is.
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December 3, 2025 8:08am
- peterwn
  
  I also meant to say that I hope this incident does not encourage Auckland firefighters to trespass in the new CRL rail tunnels. Firefighters would almost certainly be invited into the tunnels for familiarisation as part of the commissioning process as no doubt the Melbourne ones were.
  
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  December 3, 2025 8:23am
- Paulus
  
  This is a Union and in Melbourne so they do whatever they want and the Victoria State (their mates) Government will do as they are told by the Unions.
  Nothing new for Melbourne.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:01am
  - peterwn
    
    The same attitudes that led to the demise of Ansett airlines.
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:07am
    - SoloView
      
      @ peterwn
      
      The unions as such had very little to do with Ansett’s collapse.
      Operating poorly maintained and too many different types of aircraft played a big part.
      
      It’s also interesting to note that when the Ansett debacle took place, Air NZ was a privately owned company.
      
      The government had to buy back shares/refinance to stop the company collapsing.
      
      https://www.theage.com.au/national/from-the-archives-2001-the-collapse-of-ansett-australia-20210907-p58pjg.html
      
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      December 3, 2025 12:53pm
- MCōs
  
  The extension to the Melbourne metro comprises a 9km tunnel plus five new stations and will be fully opened in February after nine years construction at a cost of $A14bil
  The CRL in Auckland is about 3.5km tunnel plus four new stations open by this time next year after ten years construction at a cost of $NZ5.5bil
  The second Mt Victoria Tunnel has a budget of $NZ3.8bil
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:18am
KKNZ2025

“Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for November 2025 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) on 50%, up 0.5% points from a month earlier, extending its lead in front of the Labour-Greens-Maori Party Parliamentary Opposition on 44.5%, down 0.5% points, the latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Poll finds”

https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10094-nz-national-voting-intention-november-2025?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MRU%202%20December%202025&utm_content=MRU%202%20December%202025+CID_f72652a33306c376e6a21b253a04b436&utm_source=Market%20Research%20Update&utm_term=Read%20Full%20Article
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December 3, 2025 8:11am
- Cantabrian
  
  Funny – I can’t find any report on the RM poll in the MSM!
  
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  December 3, 2025 10:35am
  - RoboRob
    
    They never report on it.
    
    Co-Pilot says…
    
    The New Zealand mainstream media rarely reports on the Roy Morgan poll because it is considered less methodologically transparent than other polls, is conducted by an Australian company rather than a local firm, and often produces results that differ significantly from the polls most trusted by NZ outlets. As a result, it is more commonly covered by blogs, smaller outlets, or directly through Roy Morgan’s own releases rather than mainstream NZ media
    
    Personally, having actually taken part in one, I would trust the RM results more then some other pollsters.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:14pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Editorial selection of what stories they report in order to forward their narrative political agenda is a more subtle form of left wing bias in our corrupted NZ media.
    
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    December 3, 2025 4:27pm
- RoboRob
  
  Good result for the right, especially National. Lets hope this is the start of a trend. As Labour announces actual policy people may be reminded of just how bad they are.
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:33am
  - peterwn
    
    Chris Luxon and co are saving their missiles to fire off in an orderly sequence leading up to the election. They have already started firing them but obviously do not want to fire them all at once.
    
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    December 3, 2025 5:52pm
sungsamning

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/michael-susan-dell-donate-6-25b-fund-trump-accounts
Michael and Susan Dell donate $6.25B to fund ‘Trump accounts’.
Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, and his wife, Susan, have pledged $6.25 billion to support a new federal savings program created for America’s children, known as “Trump accounts.”
The program, tucked into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, provides every child born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028 with a one-time $1,000 government deposit at birth. Families can open an account once the child has a Social Security number, and funds cannot be withdrawn until the child turns 18. [My next computer purchase will be a Dell]
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December 3, 2025 8:24am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Imagine downticking this? I wonder what that idiot Billie Eilish, who donates other people’s money thinks about this?
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:32am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, absent the second coming, or WW3; the USA is headed for a golden age.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:45pm
sungsamning

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/11/28/trump-u-s-may-almost-completely-scrap-income-tax-due-to-tariff-revenue/
Trump: U.S. May ‘Almost Completely’ Scrap Income Tax Due to Tariff Revenue.
President Donald Trump late Thursday said that the United States may “almost completely” eliminate the income tax due to the rising tariff revenue.
“In the next couple of years, I think we’ll substantially be cutting, or maybe cutting out completely, but we’ll be cutting income tax,” Trump said during an event on Thursday.
“Could be almost completely cutting it because the money we’re taking in is going to be so large,” he added. [Won’t anybody think of the tax lawyers, and accountants?]
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December 3, 2025 8:25am
- Raphael
  
  That was one of his campagn promises he was hoping to do if Tariffs brought in sufficient revenue.
  
  for me, it’s a discussion worth having. If tariffs negate teh need for income tax, I may be interested in implementing it. if tariffs in addition to income tax, not a conversation I will have.
  
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  December 3, 2025 3:24pm
kowtow

Extraordinary , today’s Herald editorial “NZ’s trust is wearing thin – all over”

Lists all manner of public institutions letting us down.

Oddly enough the mighty fourth estate aren’t mentioned , even as their cartoonist today has yet another go at Seymour over school lunches , the latest story now turning out to be Fake News and of course election interference.
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December 3, 2025 8:29am
lastmanstanding

I say the Rates Cap proposal is a stunt. A smoke screen. The real issues are as follows.
1. What services should Councils provide.
2. What is the appropriate standard of service delivery.
3. What is the appropriate charge at the appropriate standard of service delivery.

Until those questions are answered to the satisfaction of a majority of ratepayers the current problems of increasing charges for poor service delivery of services Councils shouldnt be providing will continue.
Central and local Government pollies and officials know this but dont want to deal with the real issues. Its all too hard for them.
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December 3, 2025 8:54am
- kowtow
  
  Too right .
  
  Councils have gone nuts on green/race /DEI and any number of other feel good spending .
  
  That’s the problem .
  One answer is rate payer only franchise.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:00am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, you’re right. Each ratepayer/business owner should get two voting papers. Councils should lose competence. And councillors should run the show. Not unelected General Managers.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:47pm
- Colville
  
  You are asking Central Government to micro-manage Local Government?
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:06am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    I recall a decade or so ago following complaints about rate increases Auckland Council stopped mowing the berms ( their property) and reduced library opening hours to piss off ratepayers.
    Local Bodies need some guard rails otherwise they go off the track as we have seen and spend millions on cultural festivals while ignoring the potholes in the roads. I expect we will see a mentality of ‘if you dont pay the increases we decide we will cut off services you want just to piss you off”.
    
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    December 3, 2025 12:31pm
- pdm
  
  I do like the NZTU press release headline though.
  
  Watts the Wait?
  
  Ridiculous that if it ever goes ahead it will not be until 2029.
  
  Watts wrong with 1 June 2026 – Minister Watts?
  Get off your shiny arse and get the legislation through.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:11am
  - Colville
    
    Council “long term plans” are their financial plans and are set many years ahead.. With rates raises set in place already.
    The LTP for Hastings is on their website if you want some bed time reading and are struggling to get to sleep.
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:21am
    - pdm
      
      I have enough concerns about HDC Colville.
      
      Have you seen this?
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/please-walk-on-me-exhibition-with-nz-flag-on-hastings-gallery-floor-shocks-councillor/7TE4DLS6RZFJ7NPVGYCQ4KPO2A/
      
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      December 3, 2025 11:24am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    I doubt that a rates cap will ever happen. If there is not a new government in 2026 there is probably going to be one in 2029. The whole thing is a stunt.
    
    Also you could not introduce this in July 2026. It would need to be passed under urgency and it would upend the financial plans of the Councils.
    
    Not only is it a stunt. It is stupid. Just legislate to tightly restrict what local government can do. Why do they all have climate change programmes? The government could have killed all that stuff by changing the local government act.
    
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    December 3, 2025 9:36am
    - septic skeptic
      
      At the same time they propose allowing councils to charge congestion pricing! So they can use that new fund for the road and transport funding and actually increase the waste,bloat and fat salaries out of existing rate levels.
      
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      December 3, 2025 10:03am
- imalwaysright
  
  That’s correct Lastman, a Rates cap on current spending will result in the current wastage not only being enshrined in the future cost structure, but also the wastage will be inflation proofed !!
  
  If councils did only their job, rates should in fact fall by a large percentage almost immediately.
  
  Another route for councils to get around a Rates cap will be to increase revenue from council services such as parking and fees. A Revenue cap would be more effective.
  
  As you say…a smokescreen
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:27am
- MCōs
  
  It’s a pre election populist stunt at that.
  Nothing will happen before the election, but it sure looks good.
  Furthermore
  The official rate of inflation is based on price increases of items that in the main have no bearing on council costs — eggs, cheese, groceries
  Everyone knows the main council costs are champagne, escargot . . .
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:29am
  - Quail
    
    MCos,
    You are correct, the way inflation is measured is flawed.The basket of items measured is pretty arbitrary. The biggest influencing item not measured is the housing / property market.
    Probably the most accurate way of assessing real inflation (IMHO) is to look at the Exchange rate.
    The NZD vs the TWI (trade weighted index of about 17 other currencies ) graph in particular is very revealing. It gives the world view of the purchasing power of our NZD.
    The decline in the NZD purchasing power is now horrendous.
    (This can be seen by Googling the above).
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:54am
- rouppe
  
  And here are several mayors, including Andrew Little immediately threatening that public amenities are going to become more expensive.
  
  Swimming pools, recreation centres and other community facilities – which are exempt from the cap
  
  Of course he doesn’t touch on its own internal wastage, identified by a Deloitte audit.
  
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  December 3, 2025 9:34am
  - I remember when
    
    A council with 330 excess staffing and still doesn’t have adequate oversight of spending.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:07am
    - peterwn
      
      But staff are like turkeys who will hardly vote for an early Thanksgiving.
      
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      December 3, 2025 6:04pm
Hugh Jarse

The latest Roy Morgan, haven’t seen it reported yet but: National up 1% to 33%,
Labour falls 2.5% to 28,
Greens picked up Labours 2.5 % to 14.5%,
NZF 9%,
ACT 8%,
TPM 2%.
829 voters between 27 October – 23 November.
Waiting for Maiki to shriek these results tonight.
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December 3, 2025 8:59am
- pdm
  
  HJ – no media cover Roy Morgan.
  
  In my opinion this Poll puts Winston First exactly where he wants to be – playing both sides for the baubles.
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:28am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Don’t expect it. NZ Media only report the non-RANZ aligned polls provider’s results when in agreement with Media’s own preferred narrative or the result is negative for the Coalition!
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:48am
G the giant from Dunedin

I see a new Morgan poll out shows a growing gap between the condition and the opposition.

Coalition on 50.5% opposition on 44.5%

Nats up to 33% NZF 9 Act 8

Labour down to 28% Greens up to 14.5% and TPM on 2%

This is the 4th poll since the start of November with 3 polls showing a clear gap with the coalition well in front, and only the one poll that had the opposition winning by 1 seat only if TPM keep all there seats.

I simply can not understand where the media get that the opposition are leading the coalition, it is far from
The truth and possibly a last resort before the coalition pull ahead as the economy ramps up.

All eyes now turn to 18 December and GDP figures which are predicted to be .9% for the quarter .

Incidentally, this poll is also showing another jump in right direction wrong direction figure, so now we see business confidence well up, consumer confidence well up, farming confidence sky high, right direction wrong direction going the right way, economy rebounding from the Trump tariffs, how the hell could the hapless opposition win?

Let’s not forget Manuel told all and sundry that Labour will give back Sovereignty to Maori, how they will be as lowed to do that without asking NZ is beyond me, no government gets sack for a rapidly improving economy.
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December 3, 2025 9:03am
- leoj
  
  How on earth does the party of crazies, freaks and weirdos get 14.5% support.
  
  I blame the failed New Zealand education system.
  
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  December 3, 2025 1:09pm
- rouppe
  
  I see a new Morgan poll out shows a growing gap between the condition and the opposition.
  
  A change of government is still possible with those results:
  Labour 28%
  Green 14.5%
  Nz First 9%
  Total 51.5% and a win.
  
  Don’t think Winston won’t do it, especially if Seymour insults him.
  
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  December 3, 2025 3:56pm
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Who is Manuel?
  
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  December 3, 2025 7:28pm
westernScientist

The demographic breakdown in the Nov Roy Morgan poll is interesting: https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10094-nz-national-voting-intention-november-2025 It would be great if they did more detailed breakdowns, eg by employment status, marriage status etc. but i guess that would take a much larger poll
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December 3, 2025 9:05am
cmm

There is an interesting document on using LiDAR in South Africa to survey old Iron Age sites. They say “cities”, but that would seem a bit pretentious. Villages, maybe.

This is Africa, so by Iron Age they mean relatively modern history. This village existed from 1770 to 1830.

They say that some of these villages formed partly in response to the “expanding Cape colonial frontier”. That seems rather contrived. The Cape colonial frontier was over 600km and a desert away.

What would have been far more influential were hostilities from other tribes – especially growing Zulu power which culminated in the Mfecane which would have destroyed this village in the 1830s (when the village collapsed).

Funny how the Mfecane only gets a mention as “the disruptions of the Mfecane”. These were not just “disruptions”. This was an ongoing genocide that either killed or displaced over 50% of the population in the area now known as South Africa. The area where this village was was some of the worst and probably saw over 90% of people being killed or displaced.

So no matter how shiny the LiDAR and other tools, the narrative still mauls the interpretation.

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2025-11-28-uct-helps-unveil-hidden-pre-colonial-cities-with-lidar
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December 3, 2025 9:27am
- Mike
  
  A monocausal explanation sure fits your interpretation. It’s a pity the history is more complex than that.
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:18am
  - cmm
    
    A very boring and predictable response.
    
    Where did I say there was one cause? There are always more than one cause for almost everything. That does not mean that there cannot be an overwhelming major cause for something.
    
    The greatest cause here was certainly the Mfecane which just happened to occur at the same time. Funny that. The impact of the Cape Colony on this area was much later – with the discovery of diamonds and gold in the 1870s and 1880s – 40 years after these villages had become ghost towns and all the people had left.
    
    If you can use the laws of physics to explain how a diamond rush in the 1870s can cause a population to disappear in the 1830s then I am all ears.
    
    There are areas in South Africa where the Cape Colony frontier argument could have been entirely valid during that period, but this area is not one of them.
    
    One area for which it could have been valid is the area of the Fish River (Southern part of the old Transkei) where the Xhosa people were in constant border skirmishes with the settlers. Talk of the Mfecans in that area would be rather ridiculous because the Mfecane hardly impacted on that area at all (I would be surprised if more than 5% of that population were impacted by the Mfecane).
    
    Yes, there were skirmishes etc, but the people in the area thrived and still do to this day. The interactions with the Cape Colony did not lead to their demise. The same can be said for the people of Zululand who thrived too.
    
    The only people who got pummeled during the Mfecane period were the non-Zulu/Xhosa tribes – many of them wiped out completely or driven many hundreds of km North. This was around 50% of the estimated South African population (using a modern definition of boundaries since South Africa did not exist at the time).
    
    The Mfecane did go slightly South of Zulu territory (and that soon became absorbed into current Zulu territory), but was stopped by the Pondo people in Northern Transkei (the most Northern of the Xhosa speaking people). This protected the rest of the Xhosa people from the Mfecane. Instead, the main damage of the Mfecane was North and North West – through the area mentioned in this article.
    
    People speaking the language of the area of this village ended up as far as modern day Zambia and Angola. That is over 1000km. Other people were driven into modern day Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They did that on foot through hostile terrain with no transport other than their feet. The villages would have been burned to the ground at the time.
    
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    December 3, 2025 1:51pm
    - Mike
      
      I was referring to the root causes of the Mfecane being a bit more complex than “Zulus be genocidal”.
      
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      December 3, 2025 2:21pm
Albie

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/322399/principal-awarded-$150k-for-unfair-sacking

If this is the same Peggy Burrows it would appear she does have a history being embroiled in controversy.
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December 3, 2025 9:28am
- peterwn
  
  Excellent value for money. She was probably costing the school $150k+ per year for things that led to the sacking.
  
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  December 3, 2025 10:01am
  - cmm
    
    Well, except she just got her snout back in a different trough.
    
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    December 3, 2025 10:11am
- imalwaysright
  
  50 cents says she’s on the Labour list next year.
  
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  December 3, 2025 10:15am
  - Mike
    
    That’s a confident wager.
    
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    December 3, 2025 2:18pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Moneys no object here…
      
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      December 3, 2025 5:24pm
Yvette

‘No political agenda’: Principal says CCTV proves mouldy meals weren’t last week’s leftovers
• Did Food Safety check CCTV footage?

NZ Food Safety has said it was more than likely that some lunches provided by Compass Group last Thursday remained at the school and were not refrigerated.
• What happened to any left-over Thursday meals on Friday?

David Seymour – “It will be investigated but I also note this particular principal is a frequent flyer in the media complaining about quite a range of government policies… I think people need that context.”
• quite a range of government policies – like what policies? It appears Dr Peggy Burrows featured in media regarding lunchs back in March, immediately followed by an incident when a student (16) attacked staff with a pair of scissors

“I’ve never been a critic, simply pointed and highlighted when issues have arisen. I’m very grateful our school receives those lunches.” – Haeata Community Campus principal Dr Peggy Burrows, RNZ yesterday

• 18 March 2025
Christchurch’s Haeata Community Campus is requesting an “exemption” from its lunch programme contract with Compass Group
School leaders have described the level of service of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy Schools Lunch programme over the first term as “disappointing and totally unsatisfactory”
The school is set to seek permission from Associate Education Minister David Seymour to deliver the Ka Ora, Ka Ako health programme in-house.
https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-schools/school-wants-ditch-free-lunch-provider?

Does Seymour not have staff who should be dealing with this crap, as it is diverting him from sorting out the Treaty, which so many people voted him into office to do.
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December 3, 2025 9:33am
- cmm
  
  “Does Seymour not have staff who should be dealing with this crap, as it is diverting him from sorting out the Treaty, which so many people voted him into office to do.”
  
  That ship has sailed. National were white-anting it before it was even a thing.
  
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  December 3, 2025 10:13am
  - Yvette
    
    Cmm, I am aware the Treaty Principles Bill canned out – I was just hoping Seymour might help Winston get rid of the Treaty’s inappropriate mention in about 24-28 pieces of legislation before the term ends.
    
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    December 3, 2025 11:10am
    - cmm
      
      Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. National have clearly shown which side of the line they are on.
      
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      December 3, 2025 1:14pm
- rouppe
  
  She also says it can’t have been last Thursday’s meal because they have no facility to heat the food.
  
  Did anyone say the offending meal was hot?
  
  Plus, are they seriously saying that there is no microwave in the staff room?
  
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  December 3, 2025 4:13pm
OlderChas

Doing my bit for KBers – I watched the TV news again last night.
A lengthy article on the pink cycleway in Auckland, (old motorway offramp – resurfaced a few years back in a bilious shade of pink) showed several cyclists agreeing that the pink had faded in the sun and it needs “re-pinking”. The HELL it does! It does not need resurfacing, and when it does it should be at the cheaper “same colour as all other path and road surfaces”.
Also noted was poor old Benny boy Collins. Always does his on camera bits with a grim, dour and forbidding expression on his face – probably to try to convey a sense of foreboding or something. IMHO it just makes him look like a Karen!
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December 3, 2025 9:43am
- cmm
  
  I am sure the laws of physics pertaining to cycle paths work just the same whether it is pink or not. Does it really need to be painted at all?
  
  Pink was always a stupid colour to choose as pink fades quickly.
  
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  December 3, 2025 10:15am
  - Paulus
    
    Still again what is a Maori as the last one was found in 1960 !
    
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    December 3, 2025 3:02pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      My Tuhoe auntie, who died in 1972 was a full blooded Maori.
      
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      December 3, 2025 4:01pm
- Philview
  
  Benedict always has a mocking tone when talking about the National Party which is very irritating.
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:11am
- Flossie
  
  I think that is an unfair insult to the lovely Karens I know!
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:12am
  - OlderChas
    
    I very nearly put a rider to that effect in my post Flossie. But then I thought naaahhhhhhhhh, no one will be really offended!
    Disclosure: Two of my very, very good friends are named Karen.
    
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    December 3, 2025 12:31pm
- MCōs
  
  What news was that and who’s Benny Boy Collins?
  
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  December 3, 2025 1:46pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Benedict Collins.
    
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    December 3, 2025 4:02pm
    - MCōs
      
      Couldn’t be because he’s OneNews and there was nothing about the pink cycleway on the news last night 2-December
      
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      December 3, 2025 6:19pm
Crafty

So the principal in the mouldy lunch story is saying she’s not political yet runs to the media at every opportunity she gets and is on any interview she can be! Why not just do what a normal person does and bring it up with the company involved? Nope she has to run to the media and make a massive story out of it. She is bringing her school into disrepute, does she really think people believe she isn’t a raging lefty education activist?
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December 3, 2025 10:33am
I remember when

Recently the New York Times had an article headlined “Survivors Describe Deadly Snowstorm in Chilean Patagonia:”

Can we presume that the five tourists who died were the result of ‘Global Warming’?
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December 3, 2025 10:46am
- David Garrett
  
  I remember when: This is exactly why they had to change “global warming” to “climate change” mate…too many of these severe snowstorms etc. not consistent with “the narrative” – as the vernacular has it.
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:20pm
cmm

Cop gets a community service sentence for misuse of one of the most sensitive databases in the land.

Bullshit. This should result in imprisonment.

The Crimes Act allows up to 7 years of imprisonment for accessing a computer for dishonest purposes.

Community service should be limited to trivial criminal activity – one step up from library fines.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ex-cop-who-used-intelligence-system-to-get-info-on-mates-comancheros-gang-associate-brother-sentenced/premium/73HYCXKWPNG5VI6MRFP2BSGMHA/
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December 3, 2025 11:43am
- imalwaysright
  
  I wonder how the conspiracy/ corruption in the top echelon of the Police has morphed into an employment matter that’s primary concern seems to be the number of hundreds of thousands of dollars that will be awarded to the protagonist ?
  The Police are desperate to rebuild the trust of the public, maybe the can start by applying the law to themselves.
  
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  December 3, 2025 11:56am
- peterwn
  
  The ex cop could complain to the United Nations that sending him to jail (to share a cell with Bubba) would be a cruel and unusual punishment.
  
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  December 3, 2025 12:14pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Correct. Bubba doesn’t deserve that…
    
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    December 3, 2025 1:21pm
cmm

I don’t understand why ram raids, assaults and violent robberies are considered part of “retail crime”.

The wussy term “retail crime” should be reserved for lower-key crimes like actual shoplifting and such – not robbery and death threats.

Robberies and such are what they are – whether they happen in a retail environment does not make them a lesser crime.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch/christchurch-retail-crime-dairy-group-calls-for-zero-tolerance-after-violent-robbery/FB4JB73GXVHMBFW3XUXVQJBUI4/
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December 3, 2025 11:58am
- kowtow
  
  Indeed . And ‘shoplifting’ is another wussy term when it’s actually “theft”.
  
  The media use these terms to trivialise important issues .
  
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  December 3, 2025 12:48pm
Swifty

The UK under the Great Leader Sultana:

https://x.com/owenjonesjourno/status/1995556619866784166?s=46

These people are lunatics and, possibly worse, they seek total control over all our lives.
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December 3, 2025 12:30pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The entire economy to be under control of the workers, from kiosks upwards. Communism, there’s no other word for it.
  
  On the up side, Ms Sultana did not champion the rights of the non workers, as Labour do.
  
  Looks like it’ll be a fight to the death.
  
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  December 3, 2025 7:52pm
Ghost

Andrew is gone

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360907558/andrew-coster-resigns-social-investment-boss-after-damming-report
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December 3, 2025 12:56pm
- cmm
  
  Good. Maybe this is the start of ending the erosion of police credibility.
  
  This has been described as a “the right outcome”. I disagree. The right outcome would have been resigning weeks ago. This is just the least bad outcome at this point.
  
  It is fine to hold onto your position and dig in your heels if you’re going to come out smelling of roses, but if it’s going to go pear shaped then digging in your heels just makes things worse.
  
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  December 3, 2025 1:11pm
- imalwaysright
  
  What would make the top echelon of the Police conspire to protect such a person.
  Camaraderie doesn’t wash, they are all after the top job and are each more politician than police.
  So why?
  What’s the link that binds them all?
  
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  December 3, 2025 1:25pm
- MCōs
  
  Speaking of commissioners past has Mike Bush found the cop killer in Victoria?
  
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  December 3, 2025 1:55pm
  - Hugh Jarse
    
    Current thinking is he is dead.
    
    3 0
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    December 3, 2025 2:28pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      There are disputed reports he’s been spotted in South Africa.
      
      In my experience a significant minority of males in Aus have this guys’ mentality or similar. Almost a kind of “prison yard” ethos to life and interacting with other males. One of the uglier sides to Aus.
      
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      December 3, 2025 8:08pm
- David Garrett
  
  Ghost: Still, on around half a mill per year as Commissioner he should have a few investment properties…I hope he wasn’t too generous in this giving to the happy-clappy church both he and McSkimming apparently both belong to…
  
  Talking of which, I wonder how the pastors at said church now regard their communicant McSkimming?
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:30pm
- Ghost
  
  There is more of the statement on the link
  
  “I regret the impact on the young woman at the centre of this matter and sincerely apologise to her for the distress caused.
  
  “I accept that I was too ready to trust and accept at face value Deputy Commissioner McSkimming’s disclosure and explanations to me. I should have been faster and more thorough in looking into the matter.”
  
  Coster acknowledged he should have more fully investigated the allegations when they were brought to his attention, “rather than assuming that their previous disclosure to senior Police staff a few years earlier would have resulted in an investigation if necessary”.
  
  Article
  
  You will doing so well until that last bit
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:51pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    So he’s saying that its everyone elses fault and he’s an innocent bystander.
    Bullshit.
    They all know something about each other, that’s why they closed rank.
    
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    December 3, 2025 3:27pm
- Ghost
  
  Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche says he would’ve sacked former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster “if I had to”.
  
  He’s also revealed Coster will receive three months pay as part of his contract.
  
  Article
  
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  December 3, 2025 4:54pm
  - MCōs
    
    Maybe there’s a lot more skeletons in the closet yet.
    This whole saga puts me in mind of one of those old time revolutions where various high placed flunkies are dragged away and guillotined
    
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    December 3, 2025 6:06pm
David Garrett

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360907192/former-political-figure-trespassed-inner-city-bars-after-late-night-incident

Just to confirm that the above “former political figure” was not me…”overseas at the time Your Honour”…

Oh how I wish it was “Plughead” Cosgrove…he was a nasty little man when on the drink.

[Mod – there is name suppression, so we aren’t going to try guess who it is]
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December 3, 2025 2:04pm
- imalwaysright
  
  What’s with putting someone else in the frame and putting the boot in with adding a derogatory nickname?
  Very strange.
  And even joking about that people might think that it is you is just a wee bit….whatever.
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:35pm
  - David Garrett
    
    You clearly never had the dubious pleasure of having to interact with Cosgrove…and if you had seen his hair transplant you would understand the nick…like rows of pine trees.
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:05am
- Steve Todd
  
  Given it’s Dunedin, it’s not likely to be him.
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:38pm
- David Garrett
  
  Niko: Somewhat unusually for stories these days the subject of the charges is said to be male…so that lets Curran and Turei out. Benson-Pope sounds like a front runner though
  
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  December 3, 2025 3:13pm
  - alex Masterley
    
    I am not sure that Benson-Pope would be frequenting bars in the Octogon though.
    The miscrean could also be a former regional councillor or city councillor
    
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    December 3, 2025 3:22pm
Jethrod

I subscribe to a polling company by the name of Kantar. I do this because I like to answer the questions and at the same time wonder what their conclusions will be. I often wonder who the customer is as well; at times it becomes obvious by the direction the questions are angled.
I have been doing this polling for probably 8 or 9 years, being able to participate more often than not.
However there was an abrupt change about 3 and a half years ago, when I moved out of Auckland and since then I have participated in about 2 polls only, having been told “you don’t fit the criteria”. Very seldom I am late in my attempt at participation.
What does being male, 77, Nz European , from Hawkes Bay preclude me from opinions? Do I need to be LBGTQI, 22 , from the Middle East, living in Mount Roskill, to get a view of the questions?
So
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December 3, 2025 2:27pm
Nikola Donatello

Something weird about this story.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360906325/christmas-cuts-deep-couples-festive-budget-slashed-90-cost-existing-hits-hard

This guy is a self employed electrician. He is 62. No mention of what his wife does. He is struggling to survive.

I just cannot imagine a competent qualified and experienced electrician being in poverty. Which is what this article states, unambiguously.
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December 3, 2025 2:44pm
- David Garrett
  
  Niko: I thought that too…but the wife is a “natural therapist” whatever that might be…so that may be a clue.
  
  I always thought that sparkies were the best paid of the trades; they bloody should be given what they do…dealing with a substance you can’t hear see or smell, but which can kill you.
  
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  December 3, 2025 2:52pm
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    Natural therapist… Homeopathy or similar. Lots of people fall for that stuff.
    
    Also where do journalists get these stories. Or does this guy phone up stuff and say “I’m poor. I want to be on the front page”.
    
    Sure there are people struggling. I met a guy last week who is employed but it is not great pay. Ten year old son. Wife just died from cancer at a young age. He is struggling.
    
    But an actual employed electrician and his new age wife. Come on.
    
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    December 3, 2025 3:06pm
    - greybeard
      
      And did you note that they don’t have a mortgage ?
      This article is just a beat-up.
      
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      December 3, 2025 3:12pm
- artemisia
  
  Strange how these articles never say much, if anything, about actual income and expenses. In this case, maybe neither have full time work, in which case the article could say so. And what they are doing with that free time to boost their income.
  
  Mince 3 times in a year? Really?
  
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  December 3, 2025 3:32pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Note the Pink hair….
    My wife says its around $300+ to do that.
    Cant afford mince though eh
    
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    December 3, 2025 4:20pm
All_on_Red

Thoughts and Prayers for Steve Todd who said he was very much looking forward for todays Special Election in Tennessee. Sounded like confident gloating to me.
Matt Van Epps GOP 96,988 53.9%
Aftyn Behn DEM 81,044 45.1%
95% counted
Not really even close being 9% up. This is despite the Seat being the subject of redistricting in 2020 which made the seat somewhat less rural than it had been, as State House Republicans tried to boost the party’s chances elsewhere ie they made the other seats ‘safer’ but this one- was supposed to be more marginal because it’s anchored by Democrat-dominated Nashville and its suburbs, as well as the wealthy bedroom community of Franklin, one of the richest cities in America.

Amazing Behn got as much as she did cause she is a nutter, a true AWFL. That speaks to how far left the Democrats are now.
Check out this video of her having a tantrum after being removed from an office she forced her way into.
https://x.com/NicoleMSilverio/status/1993011789400097130?s=20
As for Nashville she said ” I hate the city,” the self-described “pissed off social worker” said on a 2020 podcast appearance. “I hate the bachelorette, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘it’ city to the rest of the country. But I hate it.”

Then this quote is disturbing- “My therapist always asks me to transcribe my dreams when they happen,” Behn says in the clip. “And the recurring dream I’ve had is standing up in a cafeteria full of women — I don’t know why I was there or whatever — and saying, ‘I don’t want children. I want power!’ And just screaming it at the top of my lungs.”
Wow
More in the link
https://www.dailywire.com/news/aftyn-behn-keeps-revising-her-resume-we-set-the-record-straight?
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December 3, 2025 5:03pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  [Mod – any more posts like this and you will take a long holiday]
  
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  December 3, 2025 5:42pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    “and”
    
    [Mod – see you next week]
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:17pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    👍 Well spotted.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:30pm
- MCōs
  
  She did pretty well for a nutter, then
  There was an election in the same district last year and the margin was 19%. Same as 2022.
  
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  December 3, 2025 5:47pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    Last year, Mark Green won by a margin of 21.45%. Today, the margin is 8.8%.
    
    This result is another indication the Republicans will likely lose the House next November.
    
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    December 3, 2025 8:06pm
Christopher Thomson

The first one has fallen.

The Georgia RICO case against Trump, prosecuted by the profoundly corrupt Fani Willis, has been dropped.
2 1
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December 3, 2025 5:08pm
Ghost

Need more popcorn tomorrow

Expelled MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has filed for an interim injunction, court records show, against Te Pāti Māori President John Tamihere.

The urgent hearing is set to take place tomorrow morning at Wellington’s High Court.

Article
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December 3, 2025 6:06pm
Jethrod

Was on the way to get takeaway pizza 1715 and caught HDPA “interviewing” David Seymour about the infernal lunch saga. Normally like Heather, but she was the rudest I have ever heard, talking over David, just stopping short of calling him a liar and actually calling him a DICK. She has gone down a long way in my estimation and after that display would rank her only slightly north of Tova.
Screens of bad texts coming in , like 75% virtually screaming, so much so Heather said she was going to phone David in the next break and APOLOGIZE for the dick comment.
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December 3, 2025 6:49pm
- Graeme Hall
  
  She can come across at times like a flippant idiot. I turned off after that. There are too many good podcasts to be bothered listening to adverts interspersed with ill informed commentary.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:21am

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