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December 4, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 04 December 2025

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General Debate

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Chuck Bird

Leighton interviews Dr Will Happer, who will give his first talk at Clevedon today at 4 pm.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-leighton-smith-podcas-30246213/
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December 4, 2025 8:04am
- imalwaysright
  
  Heard it yesterday.
  
  Interesting that the first thing climate shyster Al Gore did, when he became Bill Clinton’s VP, was to sack Will.
  
  No room for the truth when there are billions to be made
  
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  December 4, 2025 8:08am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    One of the main mechanisms by which the climate scam got a hold. Politicians, psychopathic/misguided billionaires and NGOs pushing the firing and smearing of those doyens of climate related fields who called BS on the alarmist hypothesis. Because the climate scam is the best trojan horse yet for foisting a utopian extreme-green/far-left revolution on populations.
    
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    December 4, 2025 3:27pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Chuck, not sure of the reasons for so many downticking an advisory post.
  Perhaps they could say why.
  
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  December 4, 2025 1:11pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    They’re full on Climate Change/Global Warming Faithful Believers.
    No arguments please, even if they’re true.
    
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    December 4, 2025 3:05pm
Yvette

Gold clam reportage
Gold clam invasion in NZ threatens drinking water for millions of people
Without intervention, the clams could reach other systems, including the Clutha or Waitaki, and compound pressures on New Zealand’s already stressed freshwaters.

But solutions must honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles. Collaboration with iwi and blending mātauranga Māori (indigenous knowledge) with science, such as using tikanga indicators for water health, is essential. Biosecurity measures including gear decontamination campaigns are critical to slow spread.

Councils are now implementing delivery plans and focusing on financial sustainability and infrastructure upgrades. The Water Services Authority Taumata Arawai continues as the national regulator, enforcing standards amid an estimated NZ$185-260 billion infrastructure deficit.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/580590/gold-clam-invasion-in-nz-threatens-drinking-water-for-millions-of-people

• What are “tikanga indicators for water health”
• As there is a settlement-established co-governance Waikato River Authority, and a Maori Advisory Council to Taumata Arowai, the Water Regulator, do Maori share the responsibility for the presence of the gold clam, and expenditure in its removal?

Newly discovered invasive Gold clam can produce 400 offspring a day
25 May 2023
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/490630/newly-discovered-invasive-gold-clam-can-produce-400-offspring-a-day
• What did Hipkins and Labour / Greens / Maori Party do about it?
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December 4, 2025 8:06am
- ISeeRed
  
  Same shit different day.
  
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  December 4, 2025 1:38pm
- leoj
  
  It’s past time for the silent majority to tell maori to get lost.
  
  Who is running the country? Maori?
  
  It seems that no law can be written or changed without “consulting” (read pay lots of $$$$) to iwi and maori just for the priviledge of a discussion.
  
  I am ceratin that I am not the only one who is fed up to the gills with this pandering to maori on every f*#king thing.
  
  The Treaty is killing the country and our politicians are meekly rolling over and forking out our tax dollars because they are shit scared to upset the “precious” ones.
  
  Where is the politician with a bloody spine, for God’s sake!
  
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  December 4, 2025 2:56pm
Scooter

So Heather DPA called David Seymour (who is the Deputy PM) a dick on her show. Will she be brought before the BSA, because this is far more of a breech of media standards than what Sean Plunkett said.
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December 4, 2025 8:10am
- Ghost
  
  Calling someone a dick isn’t a breach. You can disagree with what she was saying, turn off from her, but don’t be so precious.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:17am
  - kowtow
    
    She was being precious . Didn’t like Seymour giving as good as he gets and then she set off like a crazy .
    
    I’d say she’s showing signs of uncontrollable volatility ……..
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:43am
    - Ghost
      
      So, turn her off, don’t listen to her. But people are now getting so damn precious over nothing, sounding very much like the left idiots in the USA. Seymour typically gives as good as gets.
      
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      December 4, 2025 11:13am
      - kowtow
        
        ‘Seymour typically gives as good as gets.’
        
        Ah but he didn’t get a chance , she cut him off at the end of her tanty .
        
        Typical leftie canceller that she is.
        
        And it’s not good enough to say “turn it off” , surely there’s a merit in knowing what media are doing to politicians of the right and in discussing it . It’s called free speech and debate.That’s why this place is called a forum.Among other things.
        
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        December 4, 2025 12:05pm
    - Mike
      
      Those wimmin, huh?
      
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      December 4, 2025 12:26pm
  - Scooter
    
    Nice try to deflect Ghost. She is in the media (a more balanced one in Newstalk) and should have some semblance of balance and not stoop to being rude and disrespectful. It’s just another sign of the slipping of standards in the media. I would have thought better of Newstalk, but HDPA is just proving that it’s a race to the bottom for media as a whole.
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:59am
    - Ghost
      
      No, it’s just a normal person loosing their cool, and people getting butt hurt over nothing. Should moderators be asked to now block people calling left mp’s dicks and dickhead on this blog amongst other things, since some people are so precious around a word used so often?
      
      If you don’t like her, turn it off, but stop being so damn precious over nothing,
      
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      December 4, 2025 11:11am
      - Ghost
        
        Can you give us a link to your post where you complained about this, or do you only complain when it is against Seymour
        
        Dana Kirkpatrick: Don’t be a dick.
        
        Hon CHRIS BISHOP: By taking vehicles that are used for dangerous activities off the road, it will protect the safety and wellbeing of New Zealanders. Yeah, and as my colleague, the member for the East Coast says, don’t be dick; it pretty much sums it up. Don’t be a dick with your car, and if you do, expect the law will come after you. Because New Zealanders are sick and tired of idiotic street racers putting themselves ahead of other law-abiding New Zealanders and the safety and neighbourliness of our communities.
        
        https://www3.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20250812_052140000/bishop-chris-oconnor-greg
        
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        December 4, 2025 11:36am
      - Ghost
        
        Btw, is it worse to be called a dick or to call someone a f**king idiot?
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFL-_dR6VaY&rco=1
        
        When did the right become so precious around heated debates and discussions.
        
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        December 4, 2025 11:48am
  - Isobar
    
    I tend to agree. She is a host of a talkback radio show. She is not a news journalist.
    
    As part of that role she is allowed to be opinionated, she doesnt have to balanced or keep her opinions to herself.
    
    And also she’s a privately paid employee on a privately owned network. There is no obligation to listen and there is no obligation on Seymour to participate.
    
    I think Seymour can handle himself and he doesnt need people getting second-hand offended for him.
    
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    December 4, 2025 1:20pm
    - Graeme Hall
      
      When the host has the dump button at hand it is never a fair fight on air. Host dumps guest for what ever reason and then editorialises against the guest for as long as the next ad. Guest gets no right of reply. Normally HDPA is tolerable, but the RNZ reject, Romane Travers is as bad as it gets. As listeners all we can do is wipe ZB off the radio tuner memory list.
      
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      December 4, 2025 2:23pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        If you really want to have your blood boil, have a listen to the putrid lefty twats on the UK’s LBC radio.
        
        Not recommended if you have heart problems or high blood pressure.
        
        S Plunkett can be a serious jerk to some callers at times. However he is “doing the Lord’s work” with the station he set up (The Platform). I just wish he would let people bloody speak!
        
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        December 4, 2025 3:31pm
    - kowtow
      
      ‘With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.
      
      Assertive, direct and opinionated, Heather is well respected by leading news makers, business leaders and political insiders.
      
      As well as setting the news agenda, this show has a major focus on local and international business, ensuring our listeners are engaged and informed.
      
      Heather du Plessis-Allan is a driving force at the centre of New Zealand’s biggest newsroom and number one radio station*.’
      
      From her show’s blurb.
      
      She delivers and sets the news agenda.
      
      There you have it .
      
      Oh and there’s very little “talk back” on her agendan driving ‘news’ show.
      
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      December 4, 2025 3:39pm
      - Isobar
        
        Not sure what you mean here. It literally says she’s opinionated! Cant say people are not warned, least of all the guests on her show.
        
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        December 4, 2025 5:12pm
- RoboRob
  
  To be fair, she also immediately acknowledged her mistake and personally called him to apologise. I would much rather have that then media outlets publishing stories with major errors that are never corrected.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:18am
  - kowtow
    
    There’s nothing “fair” about it.
    
    She knew pretty damn quick she was way out of order , totally unprofessional and borderline bonkers .
    
    The apology was very likely by way of self preservation.
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:10pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  He is being a dick ….or at least his communications advisors are.
  
  What should’ve been handled with a simple press release or soundbite has been allowed to morph into a horde of gremlins and it’s no use bleating on about the media this and the media that.
  
  Must do better !
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:19am
  - pdm
    
    Was he a dick doc?
    
    HDPA did not really give him a chance to complete a sentence in a lot of cases and more than almost any other Minister David Seymour is up front with his answers during interviews.
    
    To her credit she `manned up’ admitted she was out of order and I say good on her for that but, overall it was an appalling interview from her end.
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:55am
    - Paulus
      
      But look at the media PR she requires to appear relevent. !
      
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      December 4, 2025 11:25am
- mw
  
  She called him a dick, confirmed he was being a dick and then hung up on him.
  She seemed a bit off yesterday. OK, in some banter with people like Nash she would have said something like, you know you are dancing around this, stop telling us some bs and tell us the truth.
  This was different, she got upset and called him a dick over a conversation that she would have had hundreds of times with people who were not giving her what she wanted but not being unpolite about it. I can’t remember her doing the same thing.
  I agree that it may have been nice to have some more information but at the same time I am ok with the fact that nzfs said that they did an investigation and effectively found more likely than not it was one thing.. It will never be that you will get a public litigation on the radio between these organisations and who they investigate.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:40am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She is losing the plot, she is spouting out and giggling and hating, and smearing and being opinionated
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:23pm
- grumpy
  
  Is calling a male the “D” word the same as calling a female the “C” word? If not, why not?
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:44pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    I’m the media world she is a medium.
    
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    December 4, 2025 1:14pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      In, not I’m
      
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      December 4, 2025 1:54pm
kowtow

If one needed it , definitve proof of the legacy media’s open , deliberate , even deranged bias against Seymour .

Have a listen to H duPlessis Allan losing it , even using teen diction such as “neg me” and ‘dick’ and then just cutting him off after her crazy spray.

btw the Herald today are still pushing this one spoiled meal story.Incredible . Why won’t they hold schools to account for the education crisis we’re facing.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/david-seymour-heather-du-plessis-allan-grills-the-deputy-prime-minister-on-the-school-lunch-debacle/
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December 4, 2025 8:14am
- RoboRob
  
  I actually suspect Heather is an Act voter. I think she was right to point out that the stupid principal has provided ‘evidence’ to back up her claims but that other side is relying on people to ‘take their word for it’.
  
  I think HDPA was wrong to say both sides were politicising it. The principal clearly is and has a history of doing so. The government is simply responding and trying the clear their name, that has been repeatidly attacked by this woman and the media.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:22am
  - kowtow
    
    The really really dumb thing she also said ( while losing the plot) was “you’re both politicising this” .
    
    Well duh , he is a politician . The teacher isn’t .
    
    What she seems to have also missed is the elephant in the room.
    
    The media being political by hyping up this “frequent flyer” politicising of one school lunch !
    
    The media would be doing the country a service by holding schools to account for the shocking state of education in this country . Not a single lunch.
    
    They are election interfering .
    
    Last week the ‘coup’ , this week a mouldy lunch.
    
    FFS.
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:16pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Of course she’s an Act voter, that’s why she hates Luxon from day one before she even knew what he would deliver, she only ever calls him Luxon, she calls everyone else by first name or their nickname name, she calls Hipkins Chippy every time, she calls Peter’s Winston , she getting worse, she keeps losing her voice and we on the verge last night again with furious raving instead of delivering us facts, ghez, bring back the other guy
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:26pm
- wisteria
  
  Since H duPlessis Allen “won” a radio award she has thrown caution to the wind and lets her tongue run away with her commonsense if she ever had any. She has become a pain to listen to. she slags off any of her interviewers and mostly refers to them by a nickname. Who is the real dick?
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:34am
- Souvlaki
  
  An appalling lapse of judgement really !
  She has alienated a large segment of her ‘thinking’ audience…..although she is commonly ‘bolshy’ , this was ‘off the scale’…she hopefully has some professional medical help !
  I’m not sure a simple apology….as if NOTHING significant transpired cuts the mustard? Whatever, we now know her judgement and objectivity are way off beam…the most charitable thing I can say really.
  
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  December 4, 2025 1:14pm
  - lifesgood
    
    There is something really “off” about Heather lately. I have always liked her but am losing that like. She is, as you say, bolshy but getting more and more so. She even slags off her poor husband on air. I squirm for him at times. She has become overly confident and increasing careless with her speech and her nick naming of people is childish and makes her lose her credibility.
    
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    December 4, 2025 2:07pm
Swifty

So, even the Ministry is praising the new approach and despite the extensive pushback and poo pooing by Labour MPs and the education unions etc:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/580791/new-primary-english-maths-curriculum-results-exceeding-expectations-ministry-says

What does that tell NZ families about Labour and the unions’ priorities and where there interests lie?
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December 4, 2025 8:23am
- R
  
  The legacy media will shortly be along to explain to NZ families, a corrected explanation for the RNZ article
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:23am
- pdm
  
  Not to mention the Headmasters, Teachers and School Trustees if Union propaganda can be remotely believed Swifty.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:58am
plc

I’m a subcriber to Ancestry.com the genealogy website.

Yesterday a “relative” of mine got her Ancestry DNA results:

Irish/Gaelic 93%
German 3%
African/North African 3%

Maori 1%

Uh-oh……that Moko is looking a little premature now!
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December 4, 2025 8:40am
- imalwaysright
  
  About 18% of New Zealanders have Maori ancestors,
  and 100% of Maori have foreign ancestors.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:12am
  - Paulus
    
    Who says that 18% are of Maori descent as there are no accurate Census figures as so called Maori did not take part in many cases – and we are going to scrap the Census so the figures can be fiddled continually again.
    Scrap the Stats Deparment as they are entirely biased so without a Census they can be scrapped.
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:34am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I get your point Paulus , and it is valid in that the Stats department aren’t too keen on measuring who is Maori when most Maori aren’t mostly Maori…
      
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      December 4, 2025 1:27pm
      - Paulus
        
        There have been no recorded Maori since 1960.
        
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        December 4, 2025 2:12pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        As I said yesterday when you gave the same comment – my Tuhoe aunty was full blooded Maori and died in 1972.
        My father’s oldest brother married her around 1916 – he was a logging contractor & at the time was working in the Uruwera
        
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        December 4, 2025 3:09pm
  - Jack5
    
    Re the ancestry test mentioned by PLC:
    
    How relevant a 1 per cent finding can be in an Ancestry DNA result is explained here – good background for these popular tests:
    
    https://wasdarwinright.com/dna-and-evolution/how-far-back-is-1-dna/
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:56am
  - JackRabbit
    
    And the blonde sheila from the West Coast who has 100% English DNA, says she qualifies as a Maori cos her latest boyfriend is Maori, and she reckons she’s got Maori DNA in her.
    
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    December 4, 2025 1:28pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Her name is not Debbie is it?
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:17am
- Northshoredoc
  
  I’m 1% martian.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:24am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I’m 60 % water…
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:02am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Water has a lot to answer for…
      
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      December 4, 2025 1:31pm
- Bullion
  
  Gene concentration is not a thing, if you can whakapapa Maori – you’re Maori (if you want).
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:38am
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    As I pointed out a few days ago; there is that woman on the television that had her test done and came back as 100% maori.
    
    All this despite having an ancestor who was 100% not maori.
    
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    December 4, 2025 6:08pm
- Paulus
  
  Doesn’t matter whty share she is as a so called Maori – it is the new thing that many Maori of the female sects, of all ages are turning to having the painted face to show you their superiority – see many teens now indulging – college yet ?
  But all have a painted faces to youngest in Kapa Haka indicating and teaching violence competitions.
  
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  December 4, 2025 11:31am
Swifty

I see Tau Henare, among other things the Deputy Chair of the Independent Maori Statutory Board at Auckland Council, appears to have lost any ability to control himself on social media. He uses the most appalling language and doesn’t debate issues just labels his opponents the most terrible names.

I see on Tuesday he posted on ‘X’ the single line “David Seymour is a C*nt.” (And without the apostrophe.)

And as of 8:46am today it’s still there.

Is this acceptable to Aucklanders? Is this acceptable to Auckland Maori? Is this acceptable to Auckland Council or the other Board members? Acceptable to Chair David Taipari?
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December 4, 2025 8:48am
- RoboRob
  
  I assume the ‘Independent Maori Statutory Board at Auckland Council’ isn’t independent and is actually funded by Auckland council / rate payers.
  
  I would expect a message to Len Brown might get some rather quick action.
  
  As an asside it appears to be open season of Seymour.
  
  HDPA calls him a Dick yesterday
  Phil Twyford called him a Jerk yesterday
  Tau Henare calls him a c*nt
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:28am
  - pdm
    
    RR – Len Brown has left the building.
    
    It is Wayne Brown you want.
    
    BTW Seymour must be doing a great job for New Zealand and New Zealanders then. Good on him!!!
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:02am
    - RoboRob
      
      Oops, yeah I meant the good one not ‘pants down’ Brown.
      
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      December 4, 2025 11:17am
    - grumpy
      
      Len Brown knew a C*nt when he saw one………..
      
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      December 4, 2025 12:48pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        Len even boasted of going downtown after laying one out on a Council conference table
        
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        December 4, 2025 2:43pm
      - Swifty
        
        He besmirched the mana of the Ngati Whatua Room!
        
        😂
        
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        December 4, 2025 4:19pm
    - lifesgood
      
      Yeah, shows they’re scared of him. Go David!
      
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      December 4, 2025 2:09pm
  - artemisia
    
    Badges of honour.
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:04am
  - Swifty
    
    Yes, funded by the good ratepayers of Auckland.
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:52am
  - alphabeatrium
    
    Maybe it’ll get attention if we label this profanity “gendered violence”.
    This may require David to “identify” as Davina for the purposes of oppression olympics.
    
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    December 4, 2025 2:32pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘Independent Maori Statutory Board at Auckland Council’
  
  Are they elected or appointed.
  
  South Island, where Ngai Tahu seem to have been given some special rights based on racial features they literally get to appoint people onto councils with voting rights! No reference to other electors !
  Totally contravenes that most basic of democratic principles ; the rule of law.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:31am
  - Swifty
    
    Selected by mana whenua representatives.
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:59am
  - Swifty
    
    Jobs for the boys and a nice little part-time gig paying $45k per annum.
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:06am
  - judith8409121
    
    Can’t be anti the law. CIndies lot passed a law to make it legal
    
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    December 4, 2025 7:21pm
- Handyman
  
  Yes this is perfectly acceptable to those groups (with or without the asterisk).
  Maoris and the left do not object to the last part of the quote. They only look at the first word (name) to see if the statement is offensive, racist, sexist or any of the phobics.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:43am
BeaB

Are we likely to hear much from Peggy Burrows again? Probably. Sadly.
What kind of rough justice do her students get if she rushes to judgement so quickly, without investigation or reflection?
And it’s fascinating how tender the feelings are of the Anti-Coalition crowd that they can hiss, screech, insult and sneer but burst into tears when David Seymour employs his clever and cutting turns of phrase.
Frequent flyer’ will enter our vocabulary, and not for air points!
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December 4, 2025 8:55am
- wgtn_dude
  
  Take a look at her College most recent auditors report … a junket to Queenstown for the SLT, highly questionable educational purpose, expenses not accounted for, and funding drawn from another line.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:40am
- Swifty
  
  If I was her I would never have allowed myself to be interviewed by news media until a proper investigation had been completed and the findings scrutinised.
  
  She now is covered in egg and has completely lost the initiative over this issue.
  
  Some are saying she deliberately fed the kids those spoiled lunches to score political points, I don’t believe that for a second, I think there has been a genuine mistake at the school, the old and new lunches have been mixed up, but the trouble is she agreed to interview after interview before the facts were known.
  
  Well, the facts are that the MPI/NZFS investigation has confirmed the ‘most likely’ cause of the error was the school itself and Burrows is now left standing with ashes in her mouth.
  
  She has completely shot herself in the foot over this. Unfortunately for her, now people are going to be very sceptical in future over whatever comes out of her mouth.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:45am
  - Southern Raider
    
    I think she was trying to point score and then realised it was a school mistake she needed to cover up.
    
    The real controversy the media should be covering is why this school kept back uneaten lunches. It seems to be a regular occurrence from what teachers told NZ Food Safey
    
    My view is
    1) lunches were held back and not collected
    2) lunches went mouldy over multiple days of sitting out in the heat
    3) mouldy lunches were served to students by mistake and Peggy jumped to attack on Compass/Seymour without thinking first about who was to blame
    4) gets caught out as a school mistake and then starts providing random CCTV footage
    
    Just because bins are counted going in and out on camper how does that reconcile with if any lunches were held back as I assume the bins are closed and you can’t tell how many lunches are coming in and out?
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:38am
  - Burtland
    
    apparently MPI just toed the political line
    
    “you cant win an argument with an idiot”
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:26pm
- rouppe
  
  Among all this noise about the mouldy lunch, some questions seem to be ignored:
  1. If they are ordering boxes of lunches that are all being returned, why is no one questioning the school boards about the wastage they are inflicting on tax payers?
  2. Ms Burrows has been strident on how they have no facilities for heating food. Which seems odd given they have a “state of the art commercial kitchen.” Why is no one asking about that discrepancy?
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:16pm
  - KH
    
    Peggy Burrows is a serial complainer. And this time shot herself in the foot.
    She s never wrong. Combative to the extreme. In another forum I had to block her because of her extreme self regard.
    I can’t be bothered to research fully, and I wish somebody could. But she has serious troubled history and well as the raucous political agenda.
    She need to be exposed.
    Poor kids at that school.
    
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    December 4, 2025 6:04pm
BeaB

So we are expected to believe Andrew Coster is a lovely man who was just too trusting. Not an incompetent cop who undermined his subordinates, protected his mates and mercilessly persecuted a victim?
And what does it tell us about Arden and Hipkins that they held him in such high regard?
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December 4, 2025 9:01am
- imalwaysright
  
  “Not an incompetent cop who undermined his subordinates,…”
  
  According to the Complaints report he undermined his own Minister, and by default undermined Cabinet and the Prime Minister, by not informing him of the coverup and conspiring to hide emails from the Minister and the Government.
  
  I wouldn’t call that incompetence.
  
  I would call that criminal behaviour.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:19am
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    Does NZ not have the equivalent of malfeasance in a public office offence?
    Mr Coster and others should be having their collars felt.
    
    4 0
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    December 4, 2025 11:34am
- R
  
  About Ardern and Hipkins……..that they have very poor judgement skills. But then, many of us identified that weakness back in 2017
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:30am
  - Paulus
    
    52% voted for Ardern remember !
    Women won the day and will do so again next year.
    
    4 9
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    December 4, 2025 11:38am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Well women might have to learn how to fix their own toilets, cars, lights, roads, roofs…..
      
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      December 4, 2025 1:59pm
- peterwn
  
  The Public Services Commissioner got him out of the door with a three months salary payoff. There were suggestions that the ’employer’ may have had to pay an amount equivalent to his salary for the balance of his 5 year term (and presumably some ‘hurty’ money). Seems the PSC’s legal advice was that would be a long shot and so the PSC must have told him that PSC was prepared for a bruising legal battle. White flag then went up.
  
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  December 4, 2025 11:16am
KH

This MP Ingrid Leary twit is the Labour spokesperson for mental health.
She came out raging about “cuts” when a Nat MP suggested relocating some services. Not realising it would benefit her own area.
Now check out her latest fiasco. Digs a hole and keeps digging. Penny Burrows could not do it better.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/leary-admits-chatgpt-email-blunder
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December 4, 2025 9:16am
- kowtow
  
  I’m amazed ( not) that te legacy media haven’t Christened her “Gaff prone” , or another favourite of the Leftie Luvvies when it comes to the Blue team , “controversial”.
  
  Given how she claims to have mistakenly turned up to an organised crime gang meeting.Surely there’s a Tui ad there somewhere.
  
  https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/07/03/didnt-realise-i-was-going-to-gang-hui-mp/
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:37am
  - peterwn
    
    Typical Labour person. Years ago a Labour person went to attend a political meeting but things did not seem right in the hall. He then realised it was a National Party meeting and quickly left to try his luck in the other hall.
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:00pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Kow, how can she show her face after that?
    It shows how shallow is the political cesspool .
    
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    December 4, 2025 2:02pm
- Philview
  
  A couple of years ago she sat in on a Mongrel Mob meeting by mistake. More recently she claimed she wasn’t invited by the Government to an event but later turned out she had already informed them she wasn’t available. I see a pattern.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:48am
- Swifty
  
  Doh!
  
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  December 4, 2025 11:00am
- Rumblestrip
  
  Interesting that Leary’s immediate response was to lie: she denied “directly” using AI, say she was “not aware of the email,” could not comment.
  
  Later she awkwardly admitted using AI but said she was “not the only one.”
  
  Then, finally after exhausting all other excuses, she admitted that she used AI and had personally sent offending email.
  
  Not only is she a clown, but an thoroughly dishonest one. The people of Dunedin deserve better.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:02pm
cmm

“Are you Pakeha? New poll reveals reluctance to embrace the label ”

No shit! Why would anyone embrace being called a Pakeha? It is slur.

“But indigenous scholar Dr Ella Henry argued the word itself is a gift from te ao Māori.”

Yeah, so is the N-word a “gift”. No thanks, this is a gift I don’t want and I am not obliged to accept.

According the the Treaty (which is supposed to drive everything) we’re all subjects of the British Crown. Let’s put all this racist divisiveness behind us.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/being-pakeha-new-poll-reveals-reluctance-to-embrace-the-label-the-elephant/VHFJAEILCVCFTBBYIJQGT6KWUM/
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December 4, 2025 9:16am
- KH
  
  I’m a “New Zealander”. Our government won’t let you use that.
  If you write that title in, it is automatically converted to “New Zealander”. Just as irritating.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:24am
  - pdm
    
    KH where possible I tick “other” and then write in New Zealander then if there is a place to comment I ask why New Zealander is not an ethnicity option.
    
    Lets collectively `wear the bastards down’!!!
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:07am
- Southern Raider
  
  You can tell it’s not a “gift” based on how it’s used by radical Maori, TPM and the left.
  
  If it’s a gift why would it be used in context like “you’re just a Pakeha so go back to where you came from”, “f off Pakeha” etc
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:29am
- BananaLlama
  
  Is the NZ Herald a bit cooked in the head?
  
  Former New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd was blunt about the roots of that discomfort: “Our ancestors came here, we took over, we murdered and plundered, we set up an agreement to try and work together and then ignored that.”
  
  No, mine didn’t, sorry but that’s just the facts. No wonder he is a former Mayor.
  
  “If you’re a bit fearful of your own ancestors’ history in this country … then I can understand that putting your hand up and saying, ‘I’m Pākehā’ might seem scary,”
  
  No, not scary because my descendants are European, not Pakeha, they never called themselves Pakeha and i have never called myself that.
  
  “I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my ancestors might have benefited from the confiscation of land … and then be able to say, yeah, I’m Pākehā.”
  
  No, sorry, everyone in my family brought their land the hard way. Not my fault you didn’t share the proceeds of that purchase with the local Maori.
  
  Seriously cooked and there isn’t even a rebuttle to this nonsense that is printed as fact. They should be very careful when accusing others of being guilty of murder and theft.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:46am
  - Quail
    
    Agreed, BL,
    Just like 99% of all NZ immigrants.
    Ex-Mayor Judd should not denigrate the people who led NZ into the 21st century and built a productive nation.
    All New Zealanders defended the new nation through world wars ,shed their ‘ blood sweat and tears “ and all today have benefited.
    Mr Judd should withdraw and apologise!
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:15pm
  - I remember when
    
    Yes there was what can be considered unfair confiscation of land.
    That is why the Waitangi Tribunal was set up to advise the government on remedies.
    The whole argument relates to a time in the past, which even the wisdom of Solomon would likely be unable to fairly resolve.
    Maori, especially after muskets became available, were often displaced by other iwi, migrated because of expected reprisals, making land ‘ownership’ hard to define.
    Self selection of Maori ethnicity, making most claimants both perpetrators and victims, just adds to the problem.
    
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    December 4, 2025 1:04pm
  - Sir Henry Morgan
    
    While they should be careful of spreading racial libel, for decades now it’s been very much in vogue. I’ve known nothing else my whole life and I’m not young.
    
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    December 4, 2025 2:38pm
- Bullion
  
  Come on. A slur on official documents? I think you’re being a bit precious.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:47am
- Swifty
  
  Speaking of Ella Henry, what does it say about her that she is happy to continue to sit on a Board which has conspired in the active cover up of CEO bullying and misconduct?
  
  More so that her placement on the Board was a part of that very cover up?
  
  And poor old Bernie O’Donnell – for years a close mate of Willie Jackson, now thrown aside by him to protect his wife.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:48am
  - Paulus
    
    Remember one place from whence Henry comes is a Head of Greenpeace for some time, and in a public spat with the Police over some close person.
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:44am
- pdm
  
  What a ridiculous poll.
  
  How stupid would you have to be to participate?
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:49am
  - Quail
    
    I really dont know of anyone who would enjoy being called a “white pig “!
    I understand that is what the term originally meant in Maori language of the past.
    In the new Te Reo it probably means something else?
    Whatever, it is a gratuitous insult to anyone so addressed!
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:00am
    - Don Beckett
      
      No, the term has originally meant “fair skinned stranger”- now, simply a fair skinned person. In the same way, the Cook Island version is “Papa’a” – similar to Pakeha. In Tonga & I believe Samoa, the term is Palangi.
      It is only recently that the term ‘pakeha’ has been taken as a slur. It is usually used merely to distinguish between the races – Maori, & fair skinned people of European ancestry.
      
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      December 4, 2025 10:46am
      - Yabster
        
        tingle of racism there.. “a fair skinned person” vs a “dark skinned person”- imagine the howls from the media and “elite fair skinned females”….
        
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        December 4, 2025 11:39am
      - Cassandra
        
        Negro used to be acceptable. MLK referred to blacks as negros. Just like pakeha, that’s no longer the case.
        
        10 2
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        December 4, 2025 11:48am
      - wsk12345
        
        Rubbish. It was a slur meaning “white pig” when I was at school 50 years ago. Certainly not recent.
        
        4 1
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        December 4, 2025 12:08pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, it was always twisted to mean that, never meant it at all, but, people will still push a myth
        
        2 4
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        December 4, 2025 2:15pm
      - ISeeRed
        
        If I’m a Pakeha, Maoris are just Polynesians. Hey, it’s technically true.
        
        3 1
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        December 4, 2025 1:46pm
      - Jack5
        
        Don Beckett’s description of “Pakeha”: ….fair skinned people of European ancestry
        
        That’s an interesting point. There are brownish-skinned New Zealanders of European ethnicity, and some very white people who identify as Maori, sometimes with a chin tattoo.
        
        I’ve met north Asian women whose skin is whiter than that of most ethnic Europeans and pale Maori. Some of these ladies minimise exposure to the sun to keep their skin close to porcelain white.
        
        The US Census Bureau defines people from the Middle East — Arabs, Persians (Iranians), and Israelis as White. It adds to this category the “original people” of North Africa, thus including Berbers.
        
        Maori would fit into the bureau’s definition of “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander”.
        
        In my youth, at a raging multi-racial party thousands of miles north-west of New Zealand, an Aussie insulted a Chinese man as “yellow”.
        
        The response was: “Yellow? Yellow? We are white. You are not white. You are pink. Europeans are pink.”
        
        https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html
        
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        December 4, 2025 8:56pm
    - Paulus
      
      Where did the Pigs come from – are they Maori bred too?
      
      3 2
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      December 4, 2025 11:45am
      - Don Beckett
        
        I believe that Capt. Cook brought them & released a couple of them. Often hear in hunting circles – “Captain Cooker”, relating back to the breed originally introduced by Cook.
        
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        December 4, 2025 12:28pm
    - Flossie
      
      Would the term pakeha not have pre-dated pigs in New Zealand?
      
      7 0
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      December 4, 2025 12:04pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Probably, when you consider that Maori had contact with Abel Tasman several decades before Cook arrived.
        
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        December 4, 2025 12:30pm
  - sirknz
    
    Just suffering from enough white guilt is all that is required.
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:36am
- Eastlander
  
  ‘Gift from te ao Maori’ ought to be a folksy expression for something poisonous wrapped in false amity.
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:55am
- Blog-aholic
  
  I personally have never been anything but a New Zealander. Indeed in every form I have ever filled in I tick ‘Other’ and write in New Zealander.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:20am
  - alphabeatrium
    
    I don’t even think that’s adequate. New Zealander is your nationality; your ethnicity would rather be Gael or Briton or something. I personally say that I’m Gaelic, that seems to relate best to the other options (“Samoan”, “Chinese”, etc.)
    
    Most often I refuse to answer because it feels like I’m entering into a racist game I don’t think we should be playing.
    
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    December 4, 2025 2:37pm
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      It’s all a bit mixed up in my opinion. Are they asking for ethnicity, nationality of origins or identity?
      
      On one hand they group NZ Europeans into one bucket where ethnicity is at a continent level. But for Polynesians they break down to Maori, Samoan, Tongan etc which are really nationalities not ethnicities. As many have observed there are very few pure ethnicities. Samoans often have Polynesian, German and Chinese.
      
      If it’s Nationality, I’m a New Zealander. If it’s ethnicity then it is a European mixture of Scottish, English, Irish, French.
      
      Really the question is actually about identity politics – which group do you feel the strongest affiliation to. In which case for me the answer is New Zealander or kiwi.
      
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      December 4, 2025 8:32pm
- wsk12345
  
  Indeed it is a slir. As a kid in thr 80s in a maori town it was well known that Pakeha meant “pig” or “white pig” and was generally “spat out” as a word rather than being neutral. So no i am not one of those.
  
  I also object to using a word from another language to ifentify my culture and ancestry. We speak english here – use an English word.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:41am
  - Don Beckett
    
    That certainly wasn’t the case where I grew up. Born in 1942 in Rotorua & went to primary school late ’40’s and early ’50’s in Te Puke, both areas with quite large Maori populations.
    Things have obviously changed, having Maori relatives on both sides of my family, I haven’t heard that unless an insult was intended, or talking disrespectfully about the police.
    
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    December 4, 2025 12:35pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    It would be interesting to know which town you grew up in.
    
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    December 4, 2025 3:21pm
- Dave
  
  Given that a plurality (45%) of those surveyed preferred ‘New Zealander’, it was odd that not one of those whose opinions were reported in the Herald unambiguously preferred New Zealander or explained why – Don Brash was comfortable with Pakeha, a position I shared for many years, but I now think its use is part of the racial essentialism and obsession with ancestry which is damaging the country.
  
  Instead it was assumed that racial identity was important and the resistance to using ‘Pakeha’ for self identity was explained in terms of white guilt. Hell no!
  
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  December 4, 2025 1:29pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    I also use New Zealander as my nationality. Pakeha does not denote nationality – if anything, it denotes ancestry and/or DNA via the original meaning ‘skin tone’.
    
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    December 4, 2025 3:19pm
- Graeme Hall
  
  Indigenous scholar seems a rich description for a run of mill race-grifter.
  
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  December 4, 2025 2:48pm
Southern Raider

Is Labour funding a covert social media campaign against National?

There seems to be a growing list of commentators posting on social media against the coalition. They label their jobs as “influencer” or “digital creator”. They seem relatively articulate and so not some random angry posts from the radical left you usually see.

Apart from “Jordan Rivers” and “Emily Writes” there are many others appearing who post multiple times a day and all against National/Coalition. These now include “Kōrero with Sami” and “Gerard Otto”.

What is even more interesting about Gerard Otto is that it lists his employer as Southern Cross Health Insurance. Based on volume and timing of posts he seems to spend a lot of the work day ranting against the Govt. Wonder if his employer is happy about his use of work time and probably work devices.
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December 4, 2025 9:21am
- sirknz
  
  Expect this to ramp up as the election gets closer. I would bet that the majority of these ‘influencers and commenters’ will in fact be bots or sock puppet accounts, easy to spot when the messaging is the same.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:52am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  There is definitely a bot system going on, and there is funny signs like they are not there on holidays, they usually disappear on mass by 9pm and are not obvious in the weekend
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:34pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    That could equally apply to some commenters on here.
    
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    December 4, 2025 8:35pm
Southern Raider

Phil Tyford is actively promoting a “train to be a terrorist supporter” event

He seems to be heavily involved in a West Auckland event next weekend where young people can come along to learn about how to protest for the freedom of Palestine. The brochure he shared has “nakba” and “infitada” scrawled on it which seems and incitement to violence. Along with obviously these youth that turn up will then become foot soldiers for any other radical left protest actions.
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December 4, 2025 9:24am
- kowtow
  
  You’d have thought he had learned a lesson about the type of people he was associating with.
  
  He needed a police escort to get him away from a jeering crowd in Auckland a couple of years back.
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:39pm
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    He’s not very clever.
    
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    December 4, 2025 4:50pm
Southern Raider

Early this week was an article about how a mid 20’s Raglan women blocked the local one way bridge (the other car was already 3/4 across when she decided to drive on and refuse to move). She then organised her partner and other thugs to then find the youths in the other car and seriously assault them.

Sounds like she and the thugs were well know to local Police.

Outcome as expected was home detention. Until the judiciary is pulled into meeting public expectations what hope do we have for reducing serious crime?
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December 4, 2025 9:27am
- [email protected]
  
  According to AI, there are still plenty of unused prison beds available.
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:18pm
Steve Todd

Tennessee’s 7th congressional district is not so “ruby red” today.

Harry Enten at CNN says, “the Blue wave is building”. He points out again this morning that, since 2005, when a party outperformed in special elections, it went on to win the US House in the following mid-term elections, five out of five times.

He says that if the 13-point shift in TN-7 was applied to the 2024 presidential map, the Dems would gain “north of 40 seats”. He goes on to say that yesterday’s result “is a very, very bad omen for Republicans, and a very, very good omen for Democrats.”

The second half is an interview with David Axelrod. All in all, a very interesting 8 minutes, which supports what I said in my comments on Saturday and Tuesday, that a close result could well indicate the Dems taking the US House next November. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi7RNmFW2c0 [8:12].
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December 4, 2025 9:31am
- Dougal10
  
  Explaining is losing
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:48am
- igm
  
  [Mod – drop the immature abuse]
  
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  December 4, 2025 9:54am
- Cassandra
  
  CNN? Axelrod? I won’t regard Fox and Bannon as authoritative either. But Nate Silver gets it right. Dems could well win the House. Trump’s pivot to home matters is for a reason.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:09am
  - Steve Todd
    
    We all have our preferred sources of information, Cassandra, but that doesn’t mean everything put out by media we don’t like, or wouldn’t normally absorb, is not worth watching.
    
    I hope you at least watch the first four minutes, if only to get interesting stats that might not be available elsewhere. Also, Axelrod’s interview is perfectly standard; there’s no reason why you couldn’t listen to what he says. There is no overtly Leftist point of view being pushed; it’s just a straightforward Q & A.
    
    The whole thing is only eight minutes. OTY.
    
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    December 4, 2025 11:05am
    - Cassandra
      
      My objection to CNN and Fox is the same as my objection to the Guardian, it’s slanted. Silver, otoh, while a lefty uses info. But you’re right about Axelrod.
      
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      December 4, 2025 11:55am
- Cassandra
  
  I wouldn’t read too much into the reduced margin at this stage. The 7th district is pretty solid GOP. I’m familiar with the area. 101st is based nearby.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:18am
  - Steve Todd
    
    Ah, but all the +1- to 13-point-margin Republican districts come into play now. The turnout yesterday was the same as the 2022 mid-term election, whereas, normally, turnouts in special elections are much lower. In other words, this result can be equated with a mid-term result.
    
    Also, I think it is rather amusing that the Republicans ended up having to throw the kitchen sink at this election, including spending many more millions that they did not expect to have to spend, to get their boy across the line, and which they will also now have to spend in any number of congressional races next year.
    
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    December 4, 2025 10:35am
    - Cassandra
      
      Let’s compare notes next election. If 7th moves Dem I’ll buy you a pie. Which is not to say that I’m betting on the GOP nationally!
      
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      December 4, 2025 11:57am
      - Steve Todd
        
        No, no, you’ve misread my reply to you. The 7th will not go to the Dems. Yesterday is about as good as it gets for them in that seat.
        
        What I’m saying is that the 13-point drop for the Republicans – the difference between 22% last year and 9% yesterday – in what was equivalent to a mid-term election, means that other Republican districts nationally, held by margins of up to 13%, will likely be competitive next year, whereas that was not necessarily the case before yesterday.
        
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        December 4, 2025 12:38pm
sungsamning

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22083/venezuela-alliances
Venezuela’s Anti-US Alliances.
Perhaps more significant to US strategic interests [than Venezuela’s trafficking illegal drugs] is Maduro’s cooperation with an anti-American alliance of autocracies, including Russia, Cuba, China and Iran.

Iran’s regime, both before and after a number of visits to Venezuela, delivered military drones to Venezuela and has been strengthening Venezuela’s military, thereby enabling Venezuela to threaten its neighbors, including Guyana, Trinidad and Colombia, as well as the US.
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December 4, 2025 9:42am
sungsamning

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/12/historic-michael-susan-dell-drop-6-25-billion/
HISTORIC: Michael and Susan Dell Drop $6.25 BILLION to Fund Trump’s New “Trump Accounts” — 25 Million American Children to Receive Investment Deposits.
Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, and his wife, Susan Dell, announced Tuesday that they will contribute a staggering $6.25 billion to seed new investment accounts for 25 million American children.

The move cements the launch of Trump Accounts, a cornerstone in President Donald Trump’s vision of “economic opportunity for all.”

Under the new law passed as part of the sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year, each child born in the U.S. between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, will automatically receive a $1,000 government-seeded account.
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December 4, 2025 9:42am
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/guardians-of-gold-collapse-retiree-fights-for-missing-26k-bullion-bar/premium/Z7MAG6TPVJCUBMKIZF5MU23C3E/

This guy has a great business model — take peoples literal gold, then go into insolvency. Rinse and repeat…. and, all above board.

Fool and their money are soon parted though… but, in todays uber regulated finance industry, how does this happen? I invest in sharesies, money is held in trust, not so with gold?

Not surprised this guy is a on and off Tauranga politician – the state of Tauranga is reflected in the quality of our councillors.
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December 4, 2025 9:49am
Swifty

This is clearly a sign that Mārama Martin, Phillip Sherry, Angela D’Audney, Joe Glen and Ernie Leonard are unhappy with Maori TV’s coverage and wish that it be defunded and shut down.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360908492/watch-seagull-slams-maori-tv-journalist-leaves-her-bleeding
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December 4, 2025 10:11am
- I remember when
  
  I have watched this video repeatly and am unable to identify how the injury actually occurs.
  At no time does any part of the seagull appear to have made contact with the side of the face that is injured.
  I wonder if the video has been spliced.
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:33pm
  - Swifty
    
    When I’m channeling Oriini Kaipara facts don’t matter!
    
    🤣
    
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    December 4, 2025 4:17pm
Yvette

Mouldy mince re-heated, or left-overs from yesterday

“On Thursday last week our camera footage clearly shows that the van driver from the Compass Group
delivered eight caraban containers each holding around 20 punnets of lunch meals to the School” Burrows said.

“Eight were delivered between 9am and 9.30am on Thursday and eight were picked up by the same van driver around about 2 o’clock on Thursday. Nothing was left behind at that time.
Friday was a teacher only day so no lunches were delivered.

“On Monday the same van driver from the Compass Group is clearly seen on the cameras delivering nine Caraban containers, there is a video footage of the staff discovering multiple contaminated meals in multiple carabans after that delivery” Burrows said.

“We immediately recalled all lunches at that time, called the supervisor from the Compass Group. She and the van driver arrived within half an hour and they collected all nine caraban and took them off site to investigate.

“At no time did Haeata reheat food, because we simply do not have the facility to do so. At no time did Haeata store food or-provide food to our students, because the food provision is contracted to the Compass Group.
https://www.chrislynchmedia.com/news-items/investigation-reveals-school-error-likely-cause-of-mouldy-lunches-seymour-blasts-principal-for-media-blitz/?

• How many lunches were bad – in excess of 20 (one caraban container full)?
• Did the Compass Group van concerned service any other schools on Friday, a teacher only day so no lunches were delivered to Haeata Community Campus?
• What was the normal order delivered to the Haeata Community Campus school – eight caraban containers (160 lunches,Thursday) or nine (180 lunches, Monday) [1] ?
• And if the contaminated lunches were by oversight somewhere at the school Thursday through to Monday surely they would be cold as well as inappropriate and repulsive to eat?

[1] Haeata Community Campus had a student roll of 579 as of July 2025. The school serves students from years 1 to 13 and is a co-educational institution in Christchurch, New Zealand.

As well as often displaying bias, why does media not ask the most obvious questions?
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December 4, 2025 10:14am
- imalwaysright
  
  Mrs Burrows was on TV 1 breakfast programme recently rabbiting on about the school caretaker, who we will call “Warren”(not actual name), telling her that he gets to work every morning at 5am and the first thing he does is to go around the entire school and check it. He told her there was no mouldy mince on site.
  So there we have it. “Warren” backs up Burrows.
  
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  December 4, 2025 11:17am
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    An insight into her credibility was on RNZ when she said it might be politically expeditent for the investigation to find they were leftover meals, only to deny saying such a thing when Ingrid returned to it 60 seconds later.
    
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    December 4, 2025 7:49pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  I am happy to leave it with the Food Safety investigators (who have no skin in the game) who yesterday reiterated the result of thier investigation as the school being the cause of the problem. Hopefully [deleted] Media will be OIA’ing the report and will report on it even if it puts the blame on the school.
  
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  December 4, 2025 1:21pm
- Paulus
  
  Cos the media are ardern supporters of the well known Anarchist Head Teacher who is trying to con us again and denigrate the elected government.
  
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  December 4, 2025 2:19pm
wsk12345

I suspect they keep meals after lunch for the teachers to take home. Teachers maybe left them for teachers only day where they probably left befire lunch (or had catered lunch) so the food sat over the weekend. That’s just a guess ofc
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December 4, 2025 10:50am
- Yvette
  
  How often is the menu varied in these school lunches? Unsavory mince Thursday, unsavory mince again Monday after – two consecutive days servings: same meal for Haeata Community Campus school?
  
  4 1
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  December 4, 2025 11:43am
- cmm
  
  Possible (with no evince/acusation of any sort):
  * The staff were allowed to take the left over meals.
  * The meals were left over the week end.
  * Those left overs were given to the kids so that the staff could help them selves to fresh left overs.
  
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  December 4, 2025 12:31pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    I think it’s probably a case of the principal planning to give the spoilt food to the kids but catch it before anyone eats it. She probably got interrupted or someone who wasn’t in on the plan distributed the bad food and kids ate it before they could be stopped.
    
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    December 4, 2025 1:27pm
    - Dave
      
      Goodness me, that’s a lot of quite serious, evidence-free speculation.
      
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      December 4, 2025 1:53pm
Jack5

The Herald’s still Woke. A lot of work’s left for the owner’s reform-mandated chairman, Steven Joyce.

A poll of New Zealanders of European descent finds that only 13% want to be known as “Pakeha,” much the same proportion as in a poll 12 years ago.

The Herald reports with a quote from the past of Andrew Judd, New Plymouth’s notoriously Woke Mayor of the John Key era, a decade or more ago:

“Our ancestors came here, we took over, we murdered and plundered, we set up an agreement to try and work together and then ignored that.”

The kicker, the traditionally strong last paragraph of the Herald report, returns to the near-forgotten Taranaki Mayor:

“I’m a Pakeha, a recovering racist … we are broken. We are wrong. And we must change.”

An idea for the Herald: combine a subscription drive with an option for readers to join a mass apology for past “murder and plunder” by Pakeha ancestors.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/being-pakeha-new-poll-reveals-reluctance-to-embrace-the-label-the-elephant/VHFJAEILCVCFTBBYIJQGT6KWUM/
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December 4, 2025 11:18am
- rouppe
  
  His ancestors may have murdered and plundered. His ancestors may have ignored the agreements. He might be ~~a recovering racist~~ apologising for being white.
  
  But mine didn’t. And I’m not.
  
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  December 4, 2025 4:50pm
Ra Henare

I have been pondering!!! Dangerous Ground.

It seems that Kiwiblog readers are morning people.
Comments posted before 11:15am get a lot of attention, replies and ticks.

So my assumption is, that is when people read the blog.

Posts after about 4pm seem to be mainly unread.

So HINT HINT. If you want to be read , get in early.

Maybe our gracious host could do a post on Kiwiblog traffic stats.

PS. This is reflected on other social media platforms. Facebook for instance reports heavier traffic in the 9 to Noon timeframe.
6 2
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December 4, 2025 11:21am
- hookerphil
  
  It’s 8.28 pm as I read this.
  
  0 0
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  December 4, 2025 8:28pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Or a Rolling General Debate of say 50 posts.
  
  0 0
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  December 4, 2025 8:45pm
BeaB

Matthew Hooton and Bryce Edwards have both written excoriating articles about the Coster scandal. Far from being a well-meaning, rather goofy, good old mate, Coster was up to his armpits in the scandal right from the start. He misled us, he misled his staff and he misled the Government. That Brian Roche can tell us that he is really a decent sort of chap is disgusting. That he can wander off with his pockets stuffed full with our cash is corrupt and an affront to honest public servants and employees everywhere.
So what if he has a contract? Did he tell his new employer about his repeated failures of integrity? Did he reveal his deliberate actions to cover up, deceive and deflect?
Let him sue. In open court. True accountability doesn’t mean a limp, disingenuous apology and a fat reward.
Luxon needs to tell Mark Mitchell and Brian Roche it’s time to toughen up and take real action to expose and punish this litany of appalling behaviour.
And Chambers should be thinking about what charges to lay. And against whom.
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December 4, 2025 11:51am
I remember when

Walter Cronkite:
“As a viewer, I want to see and hear unbiased, dispassionate information that is not influenced or coloured in any way by the presenter; leaving the viewer truly free to make up their own mind.”

Perhaps the worst of our presenters is Samantha Hayes, who seems to think it is essential we are aware of her thoughts on nearly every item.
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December 4, 2025 11:52am
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/tauriko-sh29-cambridge-road-upgrade-january-lane-closure-detours-and-new-speed-limits/63VPM4BAKVA7NGKTVVZOFKHDDI/

NZTA have no qualms about closing entire roads for a month now.

This outfit is a circus and run by clowns. They should all get bulbous red noses for christmas.

Why there is not a nationwide enquiry into the inept NZTA? They’ve been upgrading the Tauranga to Waihi road for nearly 3 years or so now. Their business model is infinite roadworks while at the same time reducing the quality and speed of the roading network.

It can take up to an hour to get from Tauranga west to Tauranga east. It’s not that far, and, Tauranga doesn’t really have that many people.
7 0
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December 4, 2025 1:06pm
- Miritu
  
  It’s conditioning in preparation for 15 minute cities
  
  3 1
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  December 4, 2025 3:10pm
- septic skeptic
  
  Tauranga to Waihi in maybe only 3 years? You don’t know how lucky you are, mate 😁
  I’ve been driving through the same roadworks just South of Whangarei for more than 5 years now, since we bought a place in Russell. It’s about a 1 to 2 km stretch incorporating a roundabout and a bridge. I say 5 years because that’s as far back as I have been driving the route regularly. I’m confident it has been going for considerably longer. My guess is that we will all be using Star Trek transporter beams before NZ could complete 4 lanes Auckland to Whangarei.
  
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  December 4, 2025 5:32pm
Swifty

RIP Steve Cropper, legendary guitarist, fantastic career:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qTpLK4Zwiw4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow
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December 4, 2025 2:06pm
fightingtemeraire

We all now the main story but this is the story of the US Army psychiatrist who had to analyse the prisoners, especially Goering.

Russel Crowe is Goering and is superb as are all the actors.

Two and a half hours so make sure you have an MT Bladder.
6 0
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December 4, 2025 2:07pm
Skippytony

Watched her on TV last night and said to my wife “Look, here is Ingrid blatantly lying to the news reporter”
Sure enough…
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/leary-admits-chatgpt-email-blunder

Where are the consequences for this? Why wont this be the major news story tonight?
7 1
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December 4, 2025 2:14pm
Ghost

Agree with Michael, Secretary of State appearing in this movie now makes it impossible for the president to not comment

Journalist Michael Shellenberger tells “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that President Trump needs to address the issue of UFOs after an adviser to Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country is heading toward a massive disclosure on the topic.

YouTube

Journalist Michael Shellenberger joins “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” to discuss Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s continued push for the government to disclose information about UFOs to the American public. A Rubio adviser recently told Shellenberger the secretary of state believes the U.S. has recovered alien technology and given it to private contractors for the military.

YouTube
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December 4, 2025 3:49pm
- Steve Todd
  
  This is all very interesting, but we should all keep in mind, whatever these UFOs are, they are not spacecraft containing “alien beings from a dying planet”, or anything of that nature.
  
  There are videos on YouTube explaining why humans will never establish, and certainly not maintain, a colony on Mars, let alone ever make it to our second-nearest star, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.25 light-years away.
  
  Conversely, if there is other intelligent life out there, there is no possibility of it ever making it here. The ever-expanding universe is simply too large.
  
  Just thought I’d put that out there.
  
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  December 4, 2025 6:02pm
  - Ghost
    
    The movie is actually worth watching because of the people in it. A couple of them even talk about your first paragraph. One even talks about a ufo, their words, landing at an airforce base in the USA and two, I think they used the words aliens, coming out. These are high level people, including the Secretary of State, trump will have to reply to this.
    
    2 1
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    December 4, 2025 6:25pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      I watched your two links before responding. I have not yet worked out how to access The Age of Disclosure.
      
      2 0
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      December 4, 2025 6:41pm
      - Ghost
        
        https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0NVVP9AVUZEJKG9CJC4RQE9J27/ref=atv_sr_fle_c_sr01216b_1_1_1?sr=1-1&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B0FMF7HG26&qid=1764827391204
        
        1 1
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        December 4, 2025 6:50pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Excellent. Thanks, Ghost.
        
        2 0
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        December 4, 2025 7:14pm
    - greybeard
      
      Why is it that whenever UFOs are mentioned they always land / are seen in the USA ?
      Why don’t UFOs land in other countries ?
      Are they only visible to Americans ?
      Like Bigfoot?
      
      7 1
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      December 4, 2025 6:44pm
      - Ghost
        
        Russia and china are mentioned in the movie and their programs to retrieve crashed craft. Brazil is well known as well.
        
        1 1
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        December 4, 2025 6:48pm
Steve Todd

Joanna Coles at The Daily Beast has been talking to Andrew Lownie again, about the other Andrew, and the Royal Family generally.

It looks like the disgraced Andrew might be banished to Bahrain, to escape justice.

Poor Joanna, she’s gobsmacked yet again by Lownie’s further revelations. Great viewing. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsDFQlZ6CtE [31:34].
2 1
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December 4, 2025 3:59pm
rouppe

So finally, after SIX MONTHS, the only person who brought a loaded weapon to the Salt Lake City and discharged it has been charged with manslaughter.

I’m aghast it took this long.
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December 4, 2025 5:33pm
Ghost

A private Christchurch college has made a formal complaint about TVNZ cricket commentator Scotty Stevenson over a “sexualised slur” about its students on live television.

During TVNZ’s cricket commentary on Wednesday, Stevenson called boys from Christ’s College “syrup suckers”.

Article

Sexualised?

From copilot

The nickname “syrup suckers” for Christ’s College students in Christchurch originated in the mid-1970s after a notorious incident where a group of boys were caught at a party covered in Golden Syrup. Rival schools picked up on the scandal and began mocking Christ’s College students as “syrupers” or “syrup suckers”, and the name stuck as a long-running taunt
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December 4, 2025 5:43pm
- Prince
  
  Stevenson has some issues.
  But more importantly, he’s in the wrong job.
  
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  December 4, 2025 10:00pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360909432/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-wraps-spotify-year-listening-age-27
Jesus Christ: now the MSM and the deluded left are picking on Luxon’s personal choice of music !
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December 4, 2025 6:32pm

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