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December 13, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 13 December 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

Ani O’Brien nails it: “The Coalition has kept the efficiency mechanism, the regional plans, (of Labour’s RMA redraft) but they have ruthlessly stripped out the social engineering. They’ve evicted the co-governance committees, returning power to local mayors, and swapped Labour’s nebulous environmental spiritualism for hard-nosed property rights. Labour might feel robbed, but the Coalition would argue they just saved the good bits from a wreck of Labour’s own making.”

Labour was handing over the future of NZ to the Maori tribes. The Treaty gives Labour and the tribes no such right. But beware. If Labour comes back so will the tribes.
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December 13, 2025 8:01am
- Mike
  
  The iwi aren’t going anywhere.
  
  9 38
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  December 13, 2025 8:04am
  - Paulus
    
    I wish I could accept what you say –
    they are now very familiary with all sorts of nefarious ways to screw New Zealand in favour of a Maori run Country, run by the judiciary in their favour.
    
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    December 13, 2025 9:31am
    - pdm
      
      Yep Luxon and his `little helpers’ Goldsmith and Potaka are fully on board with Co Governance.
      
      100% Labour Lite in this area.
      
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      December 13, 2025 10:27am
  - AitchW
    
    No but the head grifters are being pushed into a corner. Eventually Tamihere, Jackson, the Mahutas, and their accomplices will be fought to book and their empires scattered.
    
    20 2
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    December 13, 2025 9:52am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      They will still be wealthy beyond the dreams of most New Zealanders.
      
      Wealth pilfered from mine and your taxes.
      
      How much will be paid back?
      
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      December 13, 2025 2:39pm
      - AitchW
        
        Not a cent. But they will lose very generous income streams….
        
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        December 13, 2025 3:47pm
  - JimBobJoe
    
    No one wants them to.
    
    But the vast majority don’t want them having power over everyday citizens and the exercise of property.
    
    If some Maori wish to have tribal gatherings and celebrate their culture – great have pride in your forebears. If some Maori want to live in accordance with a spiritual belief in mauri… have at it
    
    But the rest of us, including a lot of people of Maori descent, don’t want a bar of unelected tribal elders dictating how property rights are exercise or how natural resources are exploited for the betterment of all or sitting on governance councils dictating policy settings or extracting cash for a small elites benefit.
    
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    December 13, 2025 9:59am
  - CJames
    
    The problem isn’t iwi as such. It is people of mixed ancestry claiming special privileges and state compensation because some of their ancestors did something bad to other ancestors.
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:01am
    - I remember when
      
      The problem is iwi (and hapu) as such.
      The Treaty was signed by iwi and hapu not Maori as a single group.
      Thus the land is divided into many entitlements and there is no single approach.
      These divisions are used to garner additional rights and result in considerable delays when anything needs Maori approval.
      How much of the present cost of government is the result of use of Maori language, Maori committees, tikanga (what ever that might mean), koha.
      
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      December 13, 2025 12:03pm
      - R
        
        How much of the present cost….. A considerable cost, mainly in time wasted chasing spurious claims, increasing cost due to component ‘price creep’ due to the delays identifying claimants genuine expenses and rights. ‘Time is money’!; and then there is Inflated Koha and similar
        
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        December 13, 2025 12:45pm
  - cmm
    
    Mike, unfortunately you are correct.
    
    They really have no interest in becoming British Subjects as agreed in the Treaty.
    
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    December 13, 2025 11:59am
    - Jethrod
      
      So…. they don’t become by choice British subjects , thereby missing out on all the benefits, like an increase in longevity, better health and a chance to amalgamated with the remaining citizens.
      
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      December 13, 2025 12:09pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    And neither will their take over
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:14pm
- sungsamning
  
  Yes, this long overdue reform is very welcome.
  
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  December 13, 2025 8:08am
- Simon
  
  National will open the flood gates to Indian immigration in 2027. But Labour will give Iwi more political power. What a train wreck. Which is worse?
  
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  December 13, 2025 8:14am
  - Paulus
    
    Are there not already more people of Indian decent than the so called Maori as of course there are no more Maori anyway only a mixed mongrel version.
    But do not ask the so called Stats Dept.
    
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    December 13, 2025 9:34am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No they won’t, only 70000 people entered this country in the last 12 months, we. Ow find that 30000 were returning NZers, compare that to Labours 250000 2 years ago, and let’s not forget it was Helen Clark that started the Indian open border
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:18pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    It shouldn’t be a binary choice: closing the immigration floodgates and keeping them closed, and putting the Maori elite in their place are two policy imperatives which are not contradictory, but are in fact complimentary. However, as both are “racist” policies, no politician has the balls to do either. So we’ll get neither, and things will further decline.
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:22pm
- Anthony Melchett
  
  If they get in next year it’s all over for this country.
  
  I reckon there will be a separate maori justice system and parliament in the first term.
  
  The play book is right there and they won’t hesitate this time
  
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  December 13, 2025 8:16am
- Philview
  
  Once again I shake my head at the actions of the last Labour Government as reported by Ani.
  
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  December 13, 2025 8:40am
- CJames
  
  Where does Ani say that? No links given. It is always good to see how the quote in context, how the author got there, and what it develops to. .
  
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  December 13, 2025 8:42am
  - JJ56
    
    https://substack.com/home/post/p-181225493 You should try out this flash new technology called internet searching 🙂
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:11pm
    - CJames
      
      No Close bur no cigar
      The post has “The Coalition has kept the efficiency mechanism, the regional plans, (of Labour’s RMA redraft) but they have ruthlessly stripped out the social engineering.”
      The actual substack column has “So, yes, the Coalition has kept the efficiency mechanism, the regional plans, but they have ruthlessly stripped out the social engineering.”
      Sot the difference and why search engines didn’t pick it up?
      
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      December 13, 2025 3:27pm
      - Foxfour
        
        Labour had all the RMA replacement acts passed they werent ‘drafts’
        Spatial Planning Act 2023
        Natural & Built Environment Act 2023
        
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        December 13, 2025 4:32pm
      - CJames
        
        As Ani wrote in her article, the problem with Labours laws were the bureaucracy and co-governance. But you would never acknowledge that would you FF. Or more probably, you are actually keen on them.
        
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        December 13, 2025 5:47pm
      - Quail
        
        CJames,
        And it is the Regional plans that are making it too hard to farm .develop and produce etc.
        Where are land owners/manager’s property rights Mr Bishop!
        Producers exist in Rural areas,not just urban.
        But votes are urban!
        
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        December 13, 2025 5:53pm
      - JJ56
        
        Are the art of internet searching. Learning to accommodate the author’s (Cassandra’s) editorial embellishments, and to put them aside.
        
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        December 13, 2025 9:27pm
- R
  
  Maorification of NZ will occur within the first 100 days of a LABOUR lead government being sworn into office
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:18am
Anthony Melchett

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/child-refugee-sexually-abused-at-nz-resettlement-facility-by-refugee-from-another-country/EXHQMARHNVGX5ABZIVOCZMMLPU/

Lucky this didn’t happen in New Zealand, only a strange country starting with A according to the article.

Why is this disgusting prick not deported? Oh we can only deported refugees in limited circumstances.

Would have thought rape would be perfect grounds to be sent back to whatever shithole you came from.

Castrate him and send him back. Don’t waste money on jail or rehab as he probably thinks he has the right to do this.
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December 13, 2025 8:06am
- CJames
  
  You do need jail and deportation from there. Otherwise, if he is sent back straight away, he will just become an illegal migrant to a soft touch country like UK where the authorities aren’t preventing similar things happening.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:57am
- MCōs
  
  So Howard Temple should be deported back to America instead of living in some sort of peaceful seclusion right there at Gloriavale where he admitted to spending decades sexually violating young girls?
  I haven’t heard anyone calling for his nuts to whipped off
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:35am
  - Paulus
    
    At his age I doubt if the are anything but schriveled anyway !
    
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    December 13, 2025 1:32pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Um. Well, you would certainly know.
      
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      December 13, 2025 2:41pm
      - Paulus
        
        Being older than him – yes, I do know !
        
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        December 13, 2025 3:46pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcJO83N7wNY
No Need for War: China Destroys Itself! Sony Withdraws After 29 Years, 200,000 Jobless Overnight.
Everything that comes out of the CCP controlled Chinese media is a lie. China is no longer the manufacturing Powerhouse it was 10 to 15 years ago, and manufacturers are coming to understand that ethics and honesty are not know to the CCP. Without the world markets to plunder, China is a paper tiger with no real internal national demand for all the products they produce. With no demand and an abundance of supply an economy built on sand and swamp crumbles. [Its not quite time to turn out the lights yet. Not a good look for China though.]
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December 13, 2025 8:07am
- Inandout
  
  sun, there are many videos on YT of those ghastly ghost cities, rotting away rapidly due to crappy materials. Their EV sales have slumped and thousands of vehicles sit unsold. I can only imagine what dodgy chemicals lurk in their tinned fruit being sold here by both supermarkets; I urge you to look at the ‘country of origin’ on the tin.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:48am
  - sungsamning
    
    I do. If its from China, it stays on the shelf.
    
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    December 13, 2025 6:04pm
- cmm
  
  Manufacturing powerhouses come and go according to a development curve.
  
  1850 is was Great Britain having a manufacturing boom.
  1900s-1940s it was USA
  1960s-80s it was Japan
  2000 to 2020 it was China
  
  Your statements don’t particularly apply to China. They apply to all at different times.
  
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  December 13, 2025 12:02pm
artemisia

If you want to vote for the Quote of the Year – open till midnight next Monday.

https://events.massey.ac.nz/quote-of-the-year/vote/
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December 13, 2025 8:07am
- Mike
  
  Thanks. I voted for this one:
  “They’re killing our native birds and not shagging them.”
  – Matt Bailey, organiser of the North Canterbury Hunting Competition, when asked if trapping, neutering, and releasing feral cats would be better than culling them.
  
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  December 13, 2025 8:13am
  - gravedodger
    
    Feral cats do not need cojones to kill birds, carry disease, Toxoplasmosis, Campylobacteriosis, Salmonellosis, Giardia, Leptospirosis, Cryptosporidiosis,
    Now what do they do for us?
    
    12 1
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    December 13, 2025 10:30am
- mandk
  
  I voted for Luxon.
  
  He needs to talk like that more often because he’s not going to win anyone over by trying to appeal to the woke, simpering and bleeding-heart lefties.
  
  Probably no more than 10% of electors are yet to make up their minds, and they will be captured by strong voices who speak positively.
  
  Hipkins is smart, but he will always be a wimp.
  
  Luxon has the potential to kick arse.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:18am
  - Paulus
    
    I understand that historically it is the Ladies of New Zealand who make a Parliament, and currently they appear, heavily assisted bythe so called media of women, very much against Luxon – forget the politics, a women rarely think that way but on a personal basis, and the bald headed Prime Minister is against them continually, we are told.
    
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    December 13, 2025 9:38am
    - RichardX
      
      I am no longer surprised by your casual misogyny.
      
      10 19
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      December 13, 2025 9:48am
- 2ic
  
  I’m probably just showing my political bias but the clear standout for me was the Winston Peters quip: “I know he’s the Prime Minister, I made him the Prime Minister.”
  
  Other than that it’s a pretty dire selection. I don’t even know why completely unoriginal comments like “If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck” (Judith Collins), and “we can stand on the right side of history” (Chloe Swarbrick) even make the cut. Is the standard of our parliamentarians so low that this is the best we can do?
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:35am
  - Positan
    
    “Is the standard of our parliamentarians so low that this is the best we can do?”
    
    Sadly 2ic, it would appear so. I cannot remember a time when NZ’s parliament was comprised of so many utterly lacklustre, woke and directionless wallies.
    The blame simply has to be slated back to the adoption of MMP which has enabled all manner of useless party-suckers and crawlers to acquire incomes and perks they could NEVER otherwise attain. Think back, could any of the State Hydro dams or Think Big projects have ever been completed under today’s constraints?
    The Maori Party is parliament’s greatest time-waster, followed closely by the Greens. Neither of these parties act in the greater interests of New Zealand and both would almost certainly be entirely unrepresented if the long-outdated Maori seats were abolished and we resorted back to the old straightforward and uncomplicated system of FPP – where every candidate faced election by the voter. The List seats are an abomination – as are virtually all of the MPs who hold them.
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:33am
    - R
      
      MMP is the result of a concerted effort by political activists and the MSM. They made a great effort to destroy any chance the country had of selecting STV as our government
      
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      December 13, 2025 11:48am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Problem is he didn’t make him on, us voters did,
    
    What happened to We
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:24pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Just voted for a marmite sandwich, let’s all vote that, it came quickly off the top of his head. Unlike Chloe calling a Gen X boomer
  
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  December 13, 2025 12:22pm
Scott

Candace Owens has been in the news lately claiming that Charlie Kirk’s murder was aided and abetted by his own organisation Turning Point USA, that the shooter Tyler Robinson didn’t act alone and even implying that his widow Erika Kirk was somehow involved.

Amber Duke discusses Owens outlandish claims on Rising:

https://youtu.be/Pw8F2r9f0Gk?si=CIrxJj7wYh7OXHFe

Owens claims Kirk was shot by someone in the front row of the audience. Amber Duke has looked at many hours of video footage from different angles of the shooting and concludes Kirk was not shot by someone in the front row.

Owens claims the bullet would not have been lodged in the neck. Bullets from that gun of that calibre would pass through the victim. Amber Duke has expert sources from law enforcement officers that say the bullet could have lodged in the neck.
Candace Owens says she’ll stop if Erika Kirk asks her to. Erika says stop. Candace then adds more conditions and doesn’t stop.

I used to like candace Owens. But her conspiracy theories about the killing of Charlie Kirk are beyond the pale and must be very distressing to Kirk’s family.
Candace has claimed that the French are trying to assassinate her? She claims that Brigitte Macron is a man. She claims that Israel is involved in some of these events?

Candace is no longer a voice for the right and for the conservatives. She appears to be on her own planet. Candace, in my opinion, has lost her mind.
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December 13, 2025 8:07am
- Mike
  
  She was always an insane grifter.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:45am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rubbish, just think of the lunatic that stood for Dems for POTUS she could only giggle like a typical leftie fool, that was insane
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:25pm
- imalwaysright
  
  She has gone off the rails recently but that doesn’t mean she is wrong about everything.
  A normal 30-06 bullet lodging in Kirk’s neck isn’t possible from 150m, so what caused the fatal wound?
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:00am
  - Scott
    
    I’m always – Amber Duke on the video says that it is possible according to police officers she has spoken to. It’s not common but it does happen.
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:24am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Physics disagrees Scott
      
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      December 13, 2025 11:31am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        Done a lot of shooting have you?
        
        Physics doesn’t disagree.
        
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        December 13, 2025 2:42pm
  - Jethrod
    
    What is your reasoning for a normal 30-06 bullet not causing the fatal wound? It was the rifle of choice that killed thousands of deer in NZ over the years. Very effective I believe. Especially over great distances.
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:18pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Jethrod
      You are right, its a very effective bullet that could easily take down a wapiti or a bear, and that’s my point, how could a human kneck stop such a bullet?
      
      Apparently Amber and her police friends disagree, maybe they are graduates of the Hanna Barbera school of physics…
      
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      December 13, 2025 1:21pm
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        You are wrong.
        
        Go find out where he was shot. Go read the reports.
        
        Then come back and maybe acknowledge you aren’t always right.
        
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        December 13, 2025 2:52pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Ek= 0.5×M×V×V
        
        There’s the report.
        
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        December 13, 2025 3:33pm
- sungsamning
  
  And LBJ, with a gun concealed under his cape, or the driver shot JFK.
  
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  December 13, 2025 6:10pm
sungsamning

https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2025/12/12/the-decline-of-climate-alarmism-and-the-rise-of-climate-realists-n4946980
The Decline of Climate Alarmism and the Rise of Climate Realists.
The religion of climate alarmism is in decline. The election of Donald Trump, along with high-profile defections from the climate alarmist priesthood, has begun to alter the debate over climate change.

Trump’s election brought to Washington cadres of climate change realists who are transforming the U.S. energy sector. Let’s hope they’re not too late. The Biden crackdown on fossil fuels and the continued demonization of nuclear power have put the United States behind the eight ball on energy. With the massive increase in demand for electricity going hand-in-hand with the artificial intelligence revolution, it’s an open question whether or not we can keep pace with the electrical needs of AI data centers and other infrastructure to maintain the momentum of change. [When Trump 45 withdrew from the Paris Accord; climate scepticism got a big boost. Now he is back in office; there is political cover for countries that want to dial back the hysteria. When the USA withdraws, or fails to join an
international organization, its curtains.]
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December 13, 2025 8:07am
BananaLlama

Stalkers are bloody scary.

I have known three women who have been stalked throughout their lives. One of them is my mother, who has been stalked by the same guy for 28 years now. It wasn’t until he began targeting my own children before something could be done legally, you see. My advice is don’t be passive and hope they will go away, they wont, be aggressive and pursue all legal options relentlessly. Eventually they will move on to someone weaker, which is sad but it is the way that justice works in this country.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/578745/how-a-violent-possessive-stalker-became-a-killer-the-story-of-nathan-boulter
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December 13, 2025 8:10am
- Inandout
  
  BL, you waited 28 years?
  
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  December 13, 2025 12:20pm
  - BananaLlama
    
    No and he is still going at it even with a thick ear.
    
    If you want to go the legal route there is nothing that can be done unless you can convince the victim to go down the local police station and make a statement which will only be followed up with warnings, if at all. They really love handing out warnings btw.
    
    If you want to take your complaints to court, you will have to find a lawyer that will take your case which is harder than you might think even if you can pay them for their time immediately. Then there will be the endless delays, no shows and dragging of feet by everyone involved during which time you can expect their threatening behavior to intensify.
    
    I’m not sure how the new anti-stalking law that was passed recently affects things but my impression before this was that if you wanted something done and you are not a victim then you are seriously screwed.
    
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    December 13, 2025 1:34pm
Chuck Bird

Professor Will Happer’s last talk today. It is disappointing that the PM or the Minister of Climate Change and Energy would not listen to what he had to say. More CO2 greens the planet.
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December 13, 2025 8:10am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  More relevant is whether our Chief Science Advisor, Dr John Roche, is aware of the content of Will Happer’s work.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:30am
  - Mike
    
    Why should he be?
    
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    December 13, 2025 9:46am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Because if you were aware of Happer’s research and John Roche’s specialities you might be able to put 2 +2 together….
      
      here’s a wee clue:
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/563867/fieldays-farmers-expected-to-come-on-board-as-methane-science-advances
      
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      December 13, 2025 10:55am
      - Foxfour
        
        The Chief Science advisor is only the administrative head . The research evaluations are done by his staff- well used to be be ‘staffed’ but that was another of nationals cuts.
        All gone.
        The effect of this is OCSA will do ‘nothing’ as Roche as a full time job elsewhere
        
        Clever dont you think?
        
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        December 13, 2025 12:00pm
    - Jethrod
      
      Why shouldn’t he be?
      
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      December 13, 2025 12:21pm
- imalwaysright
  
  If the “media” were smart they would have questioned Luxon on Happer.
  
  They should know that many National voters have seen the light on the climate scam and putting Luxon on the spot over Happer would have been very awkward for him.
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:04am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Why, the whole bat team seem to have simply dropped anything to do with climate, he would have the final say, what are you now suggesting?
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:27pm
Chuck Bird

A recent talk.

CO₂ Facts vs. Fear with Dr. William Happer | Climate Debrief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvPs0T3jkaQ
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December 13, 2025 8:44am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360913003/consultants-hired-run-health-nzs-it-service-desk-after-layoffs
This is what happens when the wrong people are laid-off: instead of culling the pen-pushing middle managers and “support” staff, they cut the front-line troops.
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December 13, 2025 8:47am
- Crafty
  
  It did seem like someone screwed up
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:05am
  - Paulus
    
    Normal practice today !
    
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    December 13, 2025 1:35pm
- artemisia
  
  That seems to be the union position, but is it reality? Yes IT service desk roles were reduced from 150 to 120, but what happens next. A third of the 120 chose to leave their service desk roles. Chose. The union said it was because they were frustrated. Not very robust staffers then, may be better off in roles with less ‘frustration’.
  
  The union also fished around to find or create some very vague impacts on service desk clients. But did not mention that roles have been filled temporarily while recruitment happens.
  
  I don’t doubt that management are watching the stats of this team, and will increase staffing over the 120 if they decide they need to. Or recruit people who are more productive. Maybe they will ask the union to provide their stats. Including the impact of cancelling IT projects.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:05am
- rouppe
  
  This is an example of managers following the letter of the law (reduce headcount) but doing it in a destructive rather than productive way.
  
  They lost essentially half their service desk, which by the way was 150 people for an organisation of 10,000 so not what I would say over staffed anyway.
  
  They’ve kept all the managers.
  They’ve kept all the HR staff.
  They’ve kept all the iwi liaison.
  They’ve kept all the dei staff.
  They’ve kept all the union organisers.
  
  The problem isn’t about consultants, because Datacom is a service group, not a consulting group like McKinsey or Delloitte.
  
  The problem is about the process not being managed in good faith by the (so called) leadership.
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:42am
  - R
    
    The leadership were following their personal ideology!
    
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    December 13, 2025 11:55am
  - artemisia
    
    Some assumptions there rouppe. Maybe the restructured group were not actually busy, underperforming, cancelled vacancies, not a good fit for tech changes, hired to support projects now cancelled, moved to other roles. Clearly there was a process as the IT staff reduction numbers were less than originally proposed.
    
    I wouldn’t take the union protests as gospel.
    
    Think I deduced you have worked extensively in IT rouppe. If so you will know that numbers can grow like topsy due to scope creep, business requirement changes accepted (joyfully) without question by external suppliers, below average performers kept on because too hard to manage them out out, managers in the weeds instead of strategy ….
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:00pm
    - rouppe
      
      Not many assumptions, really.
      
      The “restructured group” was service desk. The Te Whatu Ora restructure cut staff numbers from 150 to 120. Then the situation became so horrible (that is an assumption) another 40 left. Probably due to the old strategy of make everyone redundant and reapply for their own jobs. With a different name to get around labour laws, seen that happen before.
      
      Now health staff wait up to an hour to talk to a service desk person, so things have gotten worse it seems.
      
      Scope creep and requirements changes usually means projects taking longer, not more staff creeping in, and that’s project work, not service desk. I know of two people in my old department, permanents, that no one wants to work with, but HR are too gutless to get rid of them. Managers just shouting deadline dates rather than managing delivery strategy, scope and stakeholder expectations is endemic in IT.
      
      Said it the other day, say it again. Enterprise IT departments should be treated like a capability, not a cost centre. They can add so much more to productivity if a) they not treated as a laptop supplier b) the senior managers have an IT strategy to enhance their business (low likelihood) and c) there is a focus on the skills to deliver that strategy
      
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      December 13, 2025 2:14pm
      - artemisia
        
        Scope creep is not only projects.
        
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        December 13, 2025 5:40pm
Southern Raider

A cost saving measure to help our budget deficit

When an immigrant commits a crime why don’t we just deport them after sentencing and provide all the details of the crime to their home country.

In just last two weeks we had an Indian uber driver and a Syrian refugee convicted of rapes. They each got about 10 years jail and then at least the Indian will be deported.

But what do we achieve as it costs taxpayers at least $1.5M each over that time to keep them incarcerated.
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December 13, 2025 8:49am
redeye

The dude that stole the flag from the ‘cowards’ exhibition in Hastings was in court yesterday. Someone apparently has valued the flag at 15k. Is that so the penalty is harsher, or is that what the gallery is paying the activist?
On sale for 52 dollars here.
https://www.thesignmaker.co.nz/product/new-zealand-national-flag/

On December 4, he went to the gallery and allegedly stole the flag. He was arrested and charged with theft of the flag, valued at $15,000, and appeared in Hastings District Court on Friday.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360913407/man-charged-theft-controversial-art-piece-hastings-gallery
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December 13, 2025 8:57am
- imalwaysright
  
  Wasn’t Goldsmith promoting taking away the right to a jury trial for minor crimes because the courts were overloaded?
  
  Seems that they can fit people in when it suits them…
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:08am
  - Ghost
    
    No, as pointed out when you raised it, you do not have a right to a jury trial unless the maximum penalty for your crime is more than 2 years. If the maximum is less than 2 years it is judge only trial. Goldsmith has asked for feedback on extending the threshold out.
    
    https://www.justice.govt.nz/about/lawyers-and-service-providers/criminal-procedure-act/offence-categories-and-types-of-trials/
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:25am
    - Foxfour
      
      Thanks for that. Isnt the core issue a judge trial or the more rapid summary proceedings also by a judge as so many 2 yr ‘sentences’ are really only going to be community service or home detention
      
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      December 13, 2025 11:53am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        That was under labour
        
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        December 13, 2025 12:29pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Minor crimes?
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:28pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Yes, crimes at the bottom end of eligibility for jury trials.
      
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      December 13, 2025 1:33pm
- pdm
  
  What I found most interesting is that Council CEO Bickle, seemingly off his own bat has seen fit to hire a Private Investigator to investigate the only Councillor who stood up for rate payers re the obscene, so called, ART Display.
  
  Bickle is nuts and should resign because he is not fit for such a Senior role as I have said here.
  https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/12/13/hastings-district-council-ceo-nigel-bickle-has-no-respect-for-ratepayers-who-pay-his-salary/
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:36am
- I remember when
  
  Art is allowed to offend us –
  Don Brash, Posy Parker, David Seymour not so much.
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:28am
- kowtow
  
  I hope he doesn’t plead guilty .
  
  Surely his act was political and had no intention to permanently deprive .
  
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  December 13, 2025 1:14pm
- KKNZ2025
  
  He had his reasons
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360913407/man-charged-theft-controversial-art-piece-hastings-gallery
  
  Imagine the screaming MSM headlines if someone walked all over the Maori flag
  
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  December 13, 2025 1:22pm
Crafty

If you haven’t already I recommend listening to the Duncan Garner interview with Chris Bishop. I came away feeling more positive about this countries prospects long term than I have for a while. I think the mentality is changing as people realise we need to get stuff done and this can only be a good thing. I agree with him that the 2030s could be amazing in this country if we can just change how we think and the reform they have done will really help.
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December 13, 2025 9:03am
- Foxfour
  
  Sounds like an infomercial on Garners pay to play internet program
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:10am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No it sounds like commonsense, and a great reason to not have the road blocks of Marxian by Labour greens and TPM
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:31pm
Nikola Donatello

If there was ever a guy who should face capital punishment, it is this guy

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360913704/christchurch-mother-stabbed-death-front-children-named

On 10 March 2023 he was released on parole from prison. He had been sentenced for “seven charges of threatening to kill, contravention of protection order, assault with intent to injure and causing harm by digital communication.”

The parole board stated…

“The Board considers that any undue risk Mr Boulter poses can be met by way of special conditions. He will be released on parole.”

https://www.paroleboard.govt.nz/decisions/decisions_2023/nathan_boulter_09032023

Looks like the parole board was mistaken. He was released and then murdered a woman.

It seems obvious that such maniacs say all the eight words to fool the Parole Board. This guy is evil. If he is ever let out of prison again, he will rape and murder again.
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December 13, 2025 9:42am
- Mike
  
  Oddly enough, parole board members are never congratulated for their successes.
  
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  December 13, 2025 9:49am
  - rouppe
    
    That’s because being successful is their bloody job.
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:45am
- Foxfour
  
  The answer is in the PB hearing
  
  “He has five weeks remaining on his sentence”
  
  Sounds like he couldnt be held no matter what the PB decided .
  
  ‘was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in 2012’ and was released in early 2023. The unfortunate woman was killed July this year 2 yrs after relaese
  The facts sometime dont agree with your claims
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:01am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    I understand that. However my point remains. The Parole Board was wrong in its judgement. Yes he would have been released at the end of his sentence. However the Parole Board was wrong.
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:25am
    - I remember when
      
      The Parole Board supposedly made their decision a few weeks early because otherwise they couldn’t impose requirements.
      Is the Parole Board the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff?
      Really, the problem is at the point of sentencing.
      
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      December 13, 2025 11:01am
      - Foxfour
        
        Thats right .
        Surely he was covered by the 3 strikes laws when last sentenced and yet …
        
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        December 13, 2025 11:14am
cas

I heard Jack Tame on the Huddle the other day on Newstalkzb, providing his opinions on a couple of things. Yet he is a newsreader. Shouldn’t he be objective and not appear on such programmes.
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December 13, 2025 9:46am
- Foxfour
  
  The newsreader doesn’t read his own views – its all prewritten by others
  
  Strictly speaking he shouldnt be on the Huddle/Twaddle when hes also doing something like Q&A
  Paul Holmes long did ZB and the current affairs on TVNZ at 7PM
  Once the current affairs people were paid to be ‘exclusive’ so didnt appear elsewhere . Long gone now and probably Dallow was the last
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:19am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Journalist and news readers s as lasts use to be impartial, do much do they never use to vote, this bloody Tame has a habit of enforcing his opinion and Te Reo on all of us
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:33pm
  - Paulus
    
    Dallow was not a women, so he was no longer suitable for newsreading without opinions, which we have now and snide comments against the elected Government.
    Normal at last.
    
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    December 13, 2025 1:39pm
    - Foxfour
      
      Thats sounds more precious than a troupe of ballerinas.
      Its meant to be ‘hot in the kitchen’- especially when the voters are sending back the food unwanted – say the polls
      
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      December 13, 2025 4:35pm
cas

What a laugh. An email with what’s on on RNZ Saturday morning went to my spam folder, while the one about RNZ Sunday morning came straight to my inbox. Even my email provider knows the difference.

Confession, I only ever listen to Sunday morning providing Jim Mora is on it.
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December 13, 2025 9:51am
- Foxfour
  
  Good to hear hes still on air
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:20am
- Burtland
  
  Saturdays Ferguson & Forbes show is a train wreck – Goldsmith needs to step in and stop the waste of tax payers money at RNZ
  
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  December 13, 2025 12:11pm
TripeWryter

I was watching the Maori vlogger Shubz last evening. He lives in Brisbane.
And he wades into the swamps and romps there covering stuff our meek and mild and Tame media won’t go anywhere near.
Last night his targets were ‘Horneh’ Tamihere, ‘Uncle Willie Jack’, ‘Auntie Tania’, Manukau Urban Maori Authority, Waipareira Trust, and the ownership of Maori media.
This boy does not hold back.
And while I was watching I was reminded that I’d part-watched an anodyne ‘panel’ on Herald Now on Thursday, I think it was, with Paul Goldsmith and William Wakatere Jackson.
Not once did the female host of the panel query Willie Jackson about the allegations made against him by his friend Matt McCarten.
Not once.
Why are our media – particularly the Maori media – so gutless?
It reminded me again how vanilla and how ordinary our legacy media are.
None has plunged into this with anything like the verve that a Maori living in Brisbane does.
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December 13, 2025 9:53am
Ghost

Interesting conversation with the weekend gp. He was asking if I ever had covid, nope, did I have the vaccine, nope. He then went on to say that what they are seeing is those who never had the vaccine aren’t getting covid. That the vaccine should be stopped and he can’t understand why people are still being recommended for it.

Nothing my gp hasn’t said, but I found it interesting that a doctor i’ve never seen before was saying it so freely
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December 13, 2025 10:15am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  “He then went on to say that what they are seeing is those who never had the vaccine aren’t getting covid. That the vaccine should be stopped and he can’t”
  
  Sadly his intuition is at odds with facts.
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:27am
  - I remember when
    
    When they get the strain correct the flu injection is worthwhile.
    Sadly, that is less than 50% of the time.
    
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    December 13, 2025 10:51am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Sadly you remain an ally of the pharma-industrial complex — hard to understand when you are quite astute on most other matters.
    
    What do these facts that you purport to have say about:
    1. the vaccine risk reward ratio for young people, particularly young men?
    2. the vaccine risk reward ratio for pregnant mothers?
    
    The Ford Pinto was a great automobile and the benefits of driving one were immense for many. However it had a design flaw that resulted in the deaths of a small number of drivers. Like you Ford seemed to be able to use facts to justify keeping it on the road. Once the public found out the truth the vehicle was recalled and the damage to the Ford brand was immense.
    
    Your promotion of the facts in support of the COVID medical treatment are akin to the Ford exec justification for the Pinto.
    
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    December 13, 2025 2:34pm
- Southern Raider
  
  I had the initial two doses but none since. I reckon there should be a study done on madness caused by having multiple booster shots and would be akin to early last century mercury poisoning.
  
  My evidence would be all the radical left seem to proudly claim they have had over a dozen shots, while standing there screaming nonsense, with blue hair, a Temu terrorist scarf and still wearing a Covid mask.
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:36am
- Foxfour
  
  Rubbish
  ‘they are seeing is those who never had the vaccine aren’t getting covid’
  Its too silly for words and defies all the evidence
  Those wihout the vaccine are the ones getting sicker
  
  Have you wondered why hes a ‘weekend’ GP and cant work in a standard practice
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:31am
  - Ghost
    
    You do say stupid things don’t you. The weekend gp is rotated between practice, of which he owns his own and works the full week. He’s also a very qualified gp
    
    What a idiotic comment
    
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    December 13, 2025 11:38am
    - Gravelroad
      
      “What an idiotic comment”.
      Possibly been made by an eager and ambitious young intern at Labour Party HQ?
      Will be an MP off the list soon.
      They don’t really have to know anything to be a list MP, do they?
      
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      December 13, 2025 1:12pm
  - mandk
    
    ” … defies all the evidence”
    
    Yet, you don’t cite any evidence.
    
    I have heard it said that people who aren’t vaxxed can get sicker than those who have, but it is abundantly clear that the vaxx has done nothing to stop people being infected and infecting others.
    
    FWIW, I had covid before the vaxx was available. I felt a bit poorly for a day and was off my food for the rest of the week. I didn’t get the vaxx at any stage and I have not had the virus since. Meanwhile, the people I know who have been double vaxxed and double-boosted have each had covid two or three times.
    
    The reality is that improved case management and the use of anti-virals has stopped people dying from covid. The vaxx has essentially contributed nothing.
    
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    December 13, 2025 1:30pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Perhaps you could ask Ghost to name him so you can get him struck off the medical register. That was the standard practice for anyone in any professional body in NZ that stood up against the so called vaccines.
    
    So why do so many of us distrust the data and the official messaging on the covid medical treatments to this day? And why have we now extended this distrust to things that we previously trusted- like MMR vaccines?
    
    Hard to repair broken trust.
    
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    December 13, 2025 2:39pm
  - Jigsaw
    
    Fox4 – You should really try reading some evidence and find out what the Labour government said and what they actually knew. That would be a start instead of parading your ignorance.
    
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    December 13, 2025 4:56pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Same here. No vaccine, no masks, no flu, no colds.
  
  It seems that natural immunity is considered a conspiracy theory by many of the pro covid vaxxers, they forget that up until a couple of hundred years ago we it was all we had, and it worked.
  
  We are all in fact living proof of it….
  
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  December 13, 2025 1:46pm
  - Jigsaw
    
    Always right- same here and my wife. Never wore a mask- could never find a single study that showed that it was of any use.
    
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    December 13, 2025 4:57pm
Sparrow

This is a sad commentary on New Zealand today. Was speaking to a friend who lives in a provincial city and they mentioned this. A neighbours house had been burgled, the front door smashed in, the house vandalised and stuff taken. Rang the police they never came. Apparently house robberies too common for the police to bother and zilch chance of catching the offenders, don’t have the manpower to follow up so called minor crimes. In the meantime the family are traumatised twice once for having their home vandalised and secondly the could not care less attitude of the police. Welcome to NZ in 2025
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December 13, 2025 10:16am
- Don Beckett
  
  If he had had a rifle, and put a couple of shots close to where the burglars were, the cops would have been there in minutes.
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:53am
  - imalwaysright
    
    They turn up for rainbow crossings and people trying to prevent our flag from being disrespected.
    
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    December 13, 2025 2:52pm
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    To arrest the homeowner!
    
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    December 13, 2025 2:56pm
- MCōs
  
  We came home to our house in Ngaio one Friday evening about twenty years ago to find it had been ransacked and all sorts of stuff removed.
  The police didn’t come round, but they caught the bastards anyway because there’d been a string of burglaries and someone spotted something of theirs at a second hand shop.
  One thing lead to another and the police nabbed the villains & retrieved some items for people to pick over. We saw some of our things insurance had already replaced including a TV remote our rabbit had chewed a button off.
  About twenty years before that a guy got into the house while we were all there. The police caught him when he broke into someone else’s house in the area a couple of weeks later
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:17am
Swifty

I get a sense of an increasing sentiment on social media that several of Labour’s policies are corrupted in nature and bad for NZ families.

(Whether this translates to the general population I have no idea.)

Specifically:

1. That government should have no role in setting or influencing pay rates.

2. That the ‘fair pay’, pay equity agreements and minimum wage increases a) will fuel the cost of living crisis b) the costs will ultimately be borne by NZ families and they can’t afford them.

3. These are examples of Labour corruption – in return for your vote, Labour will force your employer to pay you more. It’s as simple as that. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

If this is a general ‘waking up’ of NZers I find that very pleasing.

For me, I don’t believe it’s a legitimate function of government to interfere in the private contracts of NZers. It’s none of the government’s business.

I note too social media is full of lefties wailing and screeching about the supposed influence Atlas has on the Nats and ACT but when Labour’s and the unions’ election payola in the form of minimum wage increases, fair pay and pay equity is raised they refuse to recognise it and quickly change the subject or run away.

It’s perfectly fine when the left do it apparently.
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December 13, 2025 10:39am
- Foxfour
  
  Pay equity is still a thing under National/ACT/NZF Just the threshold raised
  
  So how is it a bribe ?
  
  Just this week the pork industry laws for farrowing crates were removed even though its been a slow introduction over 10 years
  Thats a bribe in that a specific law was removed to favour the pork industry- I would say they paid for the law change under urgency just before Xmas
  Tabaco and Alcohol suppliers have also had changes that benefit them because ….
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:38am
  - Swifty
    
    “Pay equity is still a thing under National/ACT/NZF Just the threshold raised”
    
    They shouldn’t have done that. They should have scrapped it entirely.
    
    “So how is it a bribe?”
    
    I assume you’re talking about Labour here – and my answer is spelled out in my original post.
    
    If you’re talking about National, I believe it’s because they recognise that a lot of people believe it’s appropriate to vote themselves a pay rise, rather than work for it, and National have buckled. Acquiesced. Notwithstanding their tightening of criteria.
    
    Labour and their supporters lash, name-calling, abuse and threaten the Nats daily for their decisions especially on tobacco and landlords, now pig rearing etc.
    
    All I’m doing is equally calling out Labour for their corruption of the New Zealand populace. Theirs is more overt and naked though, “vote for me and I’ll use the powers of the state make those people over there put more money in your pocket.”
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:24pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The threshold has not been changed ffs, they have streamlined what is equity, and have stopped trying to compare engineers with cleaners
    
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    December 13, 2025 12:36pm
I remember when

The will of the people according to Napier City Council:

Napier City Council has a Maori advisory committee – Nga Manukanuka O te Iwi Committee.
It consists of a Kaumatua, the Mayor, 4 Councillors (Chairs of standing committees), 2 Trust representatives with voting rights on standing committees, and 7 local Marae delegates.
They meet quarterly and require a quorum of 8 – not less than 5 mana whenua and 3 councillors.

Napier Mayor fails in bid to remove Maori committee members’ voting rights: Stuff.
“Since 2022, the Napier City Council has had two members of its Maori committee on the council’s standing committee.
These are the committees in which the big council decisions are made and the Maori committee members have had voting rights on them.
Prior to Thursday’s meeting, McGrath (the new Mayor) had decided that the standing committees would no longer have two Maori committee members on them.”

However, a motion was passed, voted 6 for, 4 against and 2 abstained, overruling this decision.

The Council also has a Maori ward which elects 2 councillors.

At the Local Body Elections the vote to remove the Maori Ward was passed by 11,656 to remove, with 8,844 voting to retain.
So the Maori Wards will not exist in 2028 and 2031 elections.

At present the Council standing committees have the Mayor, 11 Councillors, and 2 Maori committee representatives with voting rights.
This means 2 Maori committee, plus the 2 Maori Ward plus, at least, 1 Councillor being Maori, so 5 in total.

The mayor, it seems reasonably and in line with the Maori ward vote, wanted to bring this back into balance.
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December 13, 2025 10:45am
- kowtow
  
  In much of the South Island the local Maoris get to appoint , with no reference to the electorate , members to sit on council bodies , with voting rights .
  
  There is no accountability .
  
  This is contrary to a basic democratic principle , the rule of law.
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:15am
- Foxfour
  
  The Mayor could change the committees without the council vote
  So didnt make a decision, just a proposal for the council as a whole to decide.
  
  Strangely the Napier city Council website on its committee members still says the defeated Mayor ( Wise) is still around – its only been over 2 months since the elections
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:49am
Graeme Hall

Tribalism has long been recognised as the antithesis of democracy and civilisation so why do so many of our politicians, institutions and media insist on promoting it? They can easily stop this trend but the lure of block-voting by race attracts them. As a consequence tribalism has been, and is still being re-imposed without a vote. The irony is most of those who rediscover their hunter-gatherer past retain a DisneyWorld view of how this culture functioned. In reality, it was a brutal, poverty stricken existence no-one would willingly want to return to.

https://theinformer.co.nz/community/through-the-portal/should-we-advertise-our-entire-heritage/
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December 13, 2025 10:50am
- Wandering Star
  
  “Tribalism has long been recognised as the antithesis of democracy and civilisation…”
  
  Has it? “Democracy” was invented in ancient Athens amongst the Athenians, who were a relatively small group of people with of shared history and bloodlines who developed the archetype of “civilisation.”
  
  Tribalism is the basic mode of human organisation for millennia. As a form, it is perfectly natural and sound. I think what you really mean is that the content (i.e. the particular people) make or break how “tribalism” works out.
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:28am
  - Graeme Hall
    
    I was quoting from Professor Victor Hanson, who was Professor of Classics at Sanford, California. He is now at the Hoover Institute at Sanford.
    
    My comments stand. Any more tips on how to suck eggs?
    
    https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/154164753X?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz
    
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    December 13, 2025 3:16pm
Southern Raider

Are the Australian owned banks about to sabotage the NZ economic recovery and cause National to loose the election?

The banks seem to continue to have zero ethics and don’t care about NZ’s prosperity at all. They have ridden super profits while more joined then unemployed queue and thousands of businesses were liquidated. And just the economy seems to have started to show signs of real recovery the banks artificially slam the breaks on.
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December 13, 2025 10:56am
- Isobar
  
  No. The banks are entitled to protect their profit margins. Its not their job to reelect National or to drive the economy.
  
  In case you forgot, inflation is heading up again and the reserve bank, whose sole job it is to control inflation couldnt be clearer, rate cuts are likely over. Since then wholesale interest rates are up and Westpac and others clearly see the direction of travel.
  
  If the government loses the election its on them. They are the ones that have clearly not delivered on their promises to bring growth or deal with the cost of living. So if there is a ballet box consequence, thats on them i’m afraid.
  
  Sitting around doing very little and relying on hope is a bad way to govern.
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:23am
- Foxfour
  
  Free markets have good and bad effects
  Anyway its longer term interest rates which the RB doesnt have any say
  
  National sabotaged the economy in the December savage cuts after they won the election
  
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  December 13, 2025 11:40am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Don’t think so, they see the bottom of the cycle us here do naturally have lifted the longer term. I note they have cut the 18 month term to 4.45 well down from Labours 7.7%
  
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  December 13, 2025 12:38pm
  - Foxfour
    
    The RB had it ‘at 7.8%’ because inflation was much higher then, like it was globally.
    Now inflation is down mostly – except food prices which continuing to rise and the economy has been in recession from 6 months after National took office
    
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    December 13, 2025 4:43pm
    - Swifty
      
      We were in recession in the final months of Labour, they just hid it with debt-fuelled spending.
      
      Remove that and our GDP growth was negative.
      
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      December 13, 2025 7:39pm
- pb
  
  OZ banks busy tiptoeing around a decades long inflationary housing bomb they’ve created.
  
  NZ needs more smaller kiwi owned banks. Much more. Reform local banking laws next?
  
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  December 13, 2025 1:01pm
- Wandering Star
  
  “The banks seem to continue to have zero ethics and don’t care about NZ’s prosperity at all.”
  
  Why would they? They are here to make money, and lots of it, and they do it by benefitting themselves, not New Zealanders. It’s also a bit of a myth that they are “Australian owned.” They are owned by international interests, in most cases by other American banks and multinational institutional investors which is why, at bottom they aren’t concerned about New Zealanders.
  
  The banking system is truly a world banking system, which is why globalisation is the main agenda, because it creates a global market with as few impediments to profit as possible. The banks have more power than any political party.
  
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  December 13, 2025 1:08pm
pb

Enoch the original god of Brexit. He fought bitterly against the 1970’s Heath conservative Govt sliding into the EU and UN.

The gist: United Nations a tautology. To join, nations are required to sacrifice their sovereign rights and forgoe nationhood. It is actually Un-nation.
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December 13, 2025 1:34pm
- Wandering Star
  
  The UN came out of the post-WW2 world, where the drive towards post-national globalism starting gaining traction and began to be a real possibility, especially given the development of the technology required to implement it. It’s easy to see why a nationalist, particularist, “third way” regime like the Nazis was such a threat to the internationalist, universalist, materialistic communists and capitalists, who obviously appreciated the similarities in their allegedly incompatible ideologies and economic systems, and how they were just two means towards similar ends. This is one of the reasons why, to this, day, anything approaching mid-20th century German doctrine is repudiated with such hostility.
  
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  December 13, 2025 3:03pm
  - David Garrett
    
    WS: This is a new low even for you…so the Nazis were
    a nationalist, particularist, “third way” regime
    and not a bunch of genocidal psychopaths. You remind me rather of old Mikey Many Names – except I suspect he doesn’t actually believe much of the tripe he writes…I rather suspect you do…which is frightening – all the more so if you are a young man.
    
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    December 13, 2025 7:53pm
- Foxfour
  
  Britain was a founding member of UN.
  What has that got to do with Enoch Powell, and old style elitist who has been very wrong
  
  as for Ted Heath
  “The biggest argument Powell and Heath had during Powell’s time in the Shadow Cabinet was over a dispute over the role of Black Rod, who would go to the Commons to summon them to the Lords to hear the Royal Assent of Bills.”
  
  On other words it was about the most pedantic of matters not fighting over EU with Ted Heath at all.
  
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  December 13, 2025 4:50pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Fox4: The only thing Enoch got wrong was the source of the destruction of the British society he knew and loved. Substitute uncontrolled Muslim immigration for West Indian immigration and he was a prophet well before his own time.
    
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    December 13, 2025 7:55pm
- pb
  
  Enoch had a memory, and was using the “monstrosity of the UN” as an argument against joining the EU. We ought strive for a Hansard like this:
  
  The United Nations is, always has been, and always will be, an absurdity and a monstrosity, which no lapse of time and no application of ingenuity and effort can remedy. It is so because it embodies a contradiction. The United Nations, as its very name declares, adopts as its basis the nation, the sovereign, independent, self-conscious nation. If anything, this basis has become more pronounced over the past 25 years, during which no sooner has the tiniest group been recognized as a nation than it has been enrolled in the company of the elect. As between these entities the United Nations purports either to maintain what those ignorant of Latin imagine to be the status quo, or to regulate its alteration without the use of force (which must of necessity include the prospect of the use of force).
  Here lies the fatal contradiction; for the very nature and existence of the nation itself are inseparable from force, which is why the rise and growth and disappearance of nations is mediated by force. A nation is unthinkable without the prospect and the intention of defending itself and its territory, and this necessarily implies the prospect and possibility of being attacked. Without war the sovereign nation is not conceivable.
  
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  December 13, 2025 10:27pm
Ra Henare

Pondering the last year on Kiwi blog.
With all the anti Maori rhetoric.

Will we see at least one positive Maori story/comment in 2026?

Haha. I can feel that downtick key being pounded.

But it is a serious question.
Why is NZ so divided on race that any mention of anything that could be seen as Maorification and anything Iwi is jumped on negatively with such apparent glee?
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December 13, 2025 4:55pm
- greybeard
  
  Because as soon as you categorise something as maori, or attribute something only to maori, or are required judge something by maori “standards”, you automatically subscribe to the idea
  ( or are forced to subscribe to the idea ) that maori are special and somehow different and deserving of separate consideration. And the truth is: they don’t. We know it. They know it.
  
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  December 13, 2025 6:29pm
- Swifty
  
  “Why is NZ so divided on race that any mention of anything that could be seen as Maorification and anything Iwi is jumped on negatively with such apparent glee?”
  
  Because for many non-Maori folk who were filled with goodwill for Maori 20 years ago now have had that goodwill extinguished in the dodgy claims, open lust for power, payola, incompetence, tax rip-offs, political skullduggery and generally having Maori wonderfulness forced on us rather than grown organically.
  
  It certainly is for me.
  
  They’ve gone far too far.
  
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  December 13, 2025 7:46pm
R

Enoch Powell…old style elitist- been very wrong. Rubbish foxfour. Enoch was very correct with his foresight. Look at the UK social problems now. They should’ve listened to Enoch
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December 13, 2025 5:19pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Youngest Professor of Classics at Sydney University and youngest Brigadier in British Army having joined as a Private.
  
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  December 13, 2025 6:21pm
Right of way is Way of Right

So, on December 1, Peggy Burrows (or Whaea Peggy, as she apparently prefers to be known), the Principal of Haeata Community College, went sprinting to the media to complain after mouldy meals were served to her students.

When it was stated by the meal provider that the most likely reason was the school had improperly stored meals from the previous Thursday, Burrows denied that, stating at the time that there was no way those meals could have been heated up, despite the school having a full commercial kitchen on site.

Last week, Burrows stated that the school was undergoing its own internal investigation, the results of which would be tabled last Friday.

Meanwhile, the Food Standards Authority released a statement in which it asserted that the fault lay with the school.

Since then, Burrows and the Haeata Community Campus have gone astoundingly quiet.

I would love to know why the media are not pursuing this.

Come on Whaea Peggy. Who’s fault was it?
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December 13, 2025 5:19pm
- Swifty
  
  And what are the chances the report from the school will have had a predetermined outcome?
  
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  December 13, 2025 7:48pm
  - Right of way is Way of Right
    
    The reporting released by the food safety authority was obviously a well aimed shot across the bows. If the schools investigation had a different finding you can bet that Whaea Penny would have been straight down to the local newspaper ready to fire straight back at the provider.
    
    Her silence only seems to reinforce that she may have been somewhat to quick to jump to a conclusion that suited her narrative, rather than waiting until she was in full possession of the facts.
    
    Obviously crisis management wasn’t one of the topics that was covered in the $18500 senior leadership in Queenstown that was in the press recently.
    
    Or food hygiene.
    
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    December 13, 2025 8:36pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360913921/watch-out-control-sports-car-misses-oncoming-traffic-centimetres

This article seems to be more about the witness than the recalcitrant driver !

“Taupō resident Mike West – who hosted More FM Manawatū’s breakfast show for 34 years”

“West said he quickly sped up in his Tesla…..”

“West, who now works at Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary….”
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December 13, 2025 6:46pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Indeed
  “What happened in the lead-up to the incident is unknown”
  Why only 5 seconds of edited action and not the lead up frames – and as he returned to see the result why only conjecture of what precipitated the incident? Perhaps just a ‘before his time’ media jock that doesn’t ask questions …..
  
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  December 13, 2025 7:41pm
Sparrow

More bad news. Both Auckland Airport terminals have had glitches today. Friend of a friend arrived at the international this afternoon waited over three hours for their luggage as with others. Has given up and gone home. The infrastructure in this country and the management of same has gone to shit. A classic example occurred locally this week. A major road was repaired which was great. Using rural roads to bypass the repairs. Then the brain surgeons decided to repair one of the bypass roads at the same time. NZ exports meat dairy kiwifruit add commonsense to those exports.
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December 13, 2025 7:06pm
- David Garrett
  
  Sparrow: Lucky me then…I had my bagage in less than 15 minutes yesterday, then out of there in less than other ten…Do you know what caused the inordinate delays today??
  
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  December 13, 2025 7:41pm
  - Sparrow
    
    I looked up the airport arrivals and there a large of flights which arrived mid afternoon. Have no idea if this is more than normal. There were computer glitches at both terminals in the morning impacting outbound passengers. Will find out tomorrow from my friend they have a nearly 3 hour car journey to get home. Not asking tonight as guess they are pretty fed up.
    
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    December 13, 2025 8:29pm

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