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December 18, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 18 December 2025

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

In Japan, drunk cyclists can lose their driving licences and face up to three years in jail. It’s not surprising: 20% of traffic accidents in 2023 involved bikes. Other offences include ignoring traffic lights, riding without lights and using a phone while pedalling.

When do you ever see cyclists pulled up by Police here?

http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy470w981n7o
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December 18, 2025 8:00am
- graham
  
  Roughly the same number of times I see motorbike riders pulled up for dangerous lane-splitting (eg exceeding the speed of the other traffic by more than 20 km/h), ignoring traffic lights, and other law breaking.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:20am
- pdm
  
  Back in the early 70’s a work colleague got stopped and fined for riding his bike on the footpath and for not having a light on his bike.
  
  He copped a $20 fine but, lucky he was not in Japan
  because he would have had 3 jugs on board – we had been at the pub for an hour or three.
  
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  December 18, 2025 12:41pm
- nz_aj
  
  Apart from “drunk and disorderly” I’m not aware of a law in NZ preventing drinking and cycling.
  A normal bicycle is not a motor vehicle.
  https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1998/0110/latest/DLM434523.html?search=sw_096be8ed81fbcf8a_Incapable_25_se&p=1&sr=0
  
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  December 18, 2025 12:45pm
Chuck Bird

This is a worry. It is not behind a paywall.

Labour has 8-point lead over National in latest poll

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/labour-has-8-point-lead-over-national-in-latest-poll/5SHIS2GOQJEMHFGP7VSBPDHSVA/
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December 18, 2025 8:02am
- Foxfour
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  More importantly Post poll has same number for National as Curia poll at roughly same time – 30%
  
  Some are saying Post poll is sponsored by ‘Infrastructure NZ’ so cant be trusted . Too silly for words.
  Curia Poll is sponsored by Taxpayers Union and everyone knows a sponsors name doesnt ‘buy the numbers’.
  
  Is Willis going to be reshuffled in late January out of her job.
  Some say she was a DEI hire ?
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:06am
  - Mike
    
    Why would the Taxpayers’ ‘Union’ pay for political polling?
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:15am
    - pdm
      
      Why wouldn’t they?
      
      At least they use New Zealand’s best pollster.
      
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      December 18, 2025 8:19am
    - Foxfour
      
      [Mod – if you want to make accusations then have the balls to email them to DPF]
      
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      December 18, 2025 8:58am
    - Ghost
      
      Do the 14 downvoters want to explain why they disagree with Mike defending David?
      
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      December 18, 2025 10:43am
      - RoboRob
        
        I’m not one of the down voters, but I suspect its becuase Mike wasn’t defending David. He was attacking the TPU.
        
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        December 18, 2025 11:48am
  - JackRabbit
    
    “Is Willis going to be reshuffled in late January out of her job.”
    
    Who is your bright eyed and bushy tailed finance expert you propose to replace her?
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:19am
  - JackRabbit
    
    …and everyone knows a sponsors name doesnt ‘buy the numbers’.
    
    An unwarranted implied slur on Curia.
    
    Is Willis going to be reshuffled in late January out of her job. Some say she was a DEI hire ?
    
    Willis had the right attitude and determination to tackle the financial quagmire and minefield Robertson, Hipkins and Ardern left behind, while others were still heaving up into buckets over what they found.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:24am
  - Paulus
    
    What a load of Bollocks !
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:58am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Hey!
      
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      December 18, 2025 12:17pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Why would Willis be out in January?, she has just delivered GPD for the quarter at 1.1%
    
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    December 18, 2025 11:07am
    - Michael Sommerville
      
      G Don’t you mean GDP or is there another metric we are not aware of?
      
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      December 18, 2025 3:58pm
- mogg
  
  This is the same polling company that had the Aus election ‘neck and neck’, right up until Labor won in a landslide.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:21am
  - kowtow
    
    Like the Labour result in the UK , landslide in terms of seats won ( and that’s fair enough) but in terms of actual votes cast for the winning side not landslide stuff at all.
    
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    December 18, 2025 10:46am
- Cassandra
  
  We’re at the Bolger stage just now: “Bugger the polls”. Do people really change their minds so frequently? It seems to me that the electorate is pretty much equally divided at the centre with variations n the fringes. It’s the trend which is important and the trend supports the Coalition. Forecast: Luxon will be the PM after the next election, with NZF and ACT on about 10-12% each. Give or take.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:31am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “NZF and ACT on about 10-12% each. Give or take.”
    
    I hope you are right.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:34am
  - JackRabbit
    
    People who have woken up and are aware of the degree to which the media are controlled, and the public watched by deep state, often do not participate in polls, for fear of being targeted.
    
    I think your forecast will be correct.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:44am
  - kowtow
    
    ‘Do people really change their minds so frequently?’
    
    There’s a saying the electorate is always right.And in the context of constitutionality that is true.
    
    However , given any population contains a proportion of low iq /low information/ dependent / subsidised/selfish voters then one can expect any number of reactions to any number of events .
    
    Recall how quickly Labour went up in the polls after “a fresh face” replaced Little ( with no change in policy!)
    How the lockdown strategy won an absolute majoridy under MMP and again how quickly that soured .
    
    So yes , there’s no accounting for the alleged so crucial “centrist” voter , who seems to swing all over the place.
    
    The scary thing is how so many power lusting politicians will do almost anything to woo such stupid people.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:46am
    - Ian Boag
      
      so many power lusting politicians will do almost anything to woo such stupid people.
      
      And the stupid people have just as many votes (one each) as you. Bloody democracy. But salvation is at hand – posting on KB to tell them they are stupid will definitely get them to see the light. Your flood of upticks will definitely change people’s voting ideas ….. 🙂
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:24am
      - kowtow
        
        Truth hurts , dunnit.
        
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        December 18, 2025 10:13am
      - Yabster
        
        just like at every opportunity to bang on about pensions will change people’s/Government’s minds huh….
        
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        December 18, 2025 10:19am
      - Ian Boag
        
        @yab
        
        OTOH I don’t call people drongoes, losers, idiots etc just because I disagree with them 🙂
        
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        December 18, 2025 1:05pm
    - Ghost
      
      Well, winston can always find the stupid people to believe his bs and vote for him
      
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      December 18, 2025 10:53am
  - MCōs
    
    If they hadn’t been rumbled in Papatoetoe the Papatoetoe-Otara Action League could have gone on to win the general election.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:59am
    - Foxfour
      
      Laughs out Loud .
      General elections are almost entirely in person polling, not postal votes
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:04am
  - Foxfour
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Complete fantasy ‘when the bell tolls’ for national now as it did for labour in early 2023.
    Act and NZF are 8-9% range according to polls, wishful thinking can be what ever you want
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:02am
    - Cassandra
      
      Et tu.
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:13am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      What rubbish, Varian had them at 36%, and only a lunatic would believe this pollster that has never ever predicted a right of centre government.
      
      Note to you. there has been no leaked Talbot poll that is usually around the 10th of the month, a very good pointer to the fact that Varian is not far wrong
      
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      December 18, 2025 11:11am
  - rouppe
    
    Which trend are you referring to?
    
    The only one I’ve taken is that an election could go either way depending on which way NZ First swing.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:52pm
  - JeffW
    
    The Centre is at 10%, given National is centre-left
    
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    December 18, 2025 5:04pm
- Philview
  
  Here is an article about Freshwater Strategy’s polling disaster in Australia.
  
  https://europeanbusinessmagazine.com/business/inside-the-freshwater-strategy-polling-disaster/
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:31am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Wow, that is pretty damning
    Guess we can write Freshwater off as a credible source.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:44pm
- artemisia
  
  Greens and TPM down. Likely to account for a good part of that 8% pro tem.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:31am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Freshwater Strategy is an Australian company.Have we ever seen them in NZ ? Maybe they are trying to become relevant in the NZ media market and Stuff have used them and Freshwater have obliged Stuff with a result Stuff wanted….
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:35am
- All_on_Red
  
  Look at the Methodology Freshwater Polling use
  This is from the June one (also put Labour ahead)
  
  ‘Fieldwork dates: 12 – 15 June 2025
  Sample: 1,150 New Zealand adults aged 18+
  Data Collection Method: Fieldwork was conducted online. Invitations to participate were sent to members of online panels. Non-response from different demographic groups was taken into account during the fieldwork phase and post-fieldwork adjustments.
  Weighting: Results were weighted to reflect the profile of New Zealand voters. Targets were Age-Sex, Education, Region, 2022 Federal Election
  Voting Intention Adjustments: After base vote intentions are produced, ‘lean’ responses are included, remaining undecideds are removed to produce a ‘valid’ result, then finally results are filtered for likely voters.
  Margin of Error: For a sample of 1,000 we can be 95% certain that the actual value will fall 3% either side of the result. This poll will have a MoE of approximately 3%.’
  
  Participants get invited and are then self selecting for an online Poll, the results of which they try to adjust for the weaknesses inherent in the way they Poll!
  Hardly credible
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:43am
  - Foxfour
    
    Same as all the others who also use panels
    
    Captain Mainwaring is still recruiting for his Dads Army to dig holes deeper.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:06am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Bless your heart
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:09am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Any polling company using an online panel are always completely out of whack with reality, they use the same group of people so you will never get a differing result
      
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      December 18, 2025 11:17am
  - cmm
    
    “Results were weighted to reflect the profile of New Zealand voters.”
    
    Wherever there is weighting it assumes that the people applying the weighting know how different groups of people act. They presume that the groups they choose (eg. male vs female) are properly represented by the people that respond.
    
    That is likely a very broken assumption.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:57am
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      The results were weighted to reflect the profile of New Zealand voters. One of the weighting mechanisms was that person’s attitude to the 2022 Federal Election.
      New Zealand has never ever had a federal election.
      I think this is another example of intelligence that is artificial. I want to read intelligence that is realistic, not artificial.
      
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      December 18, 2025 10:15am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    As soon as you see an on line invited panel its a load of shit, they use the same people
    
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    December 18, 2025 11:14am
  - Graeme Hall
    
    This sampling methodology is directed by economic practicality and not sound sampling theory. No science paper would ever get accepted by a reputable journal based on methods employing self-selected sampling and using pre-stacked panels. The margin of error is a fantasy number being calculated by a well known statistical formula but from a fault ridden sampling system.
    
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    December 18, 2025 1:58pm
- G152
  
  The Herald eh……
  What a fine unbiased news server….
  NOT
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:45am
  - kowtow
    
    Ha . I saw “server” as sewer .
    
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    December 18, 2025 10:48am
- Inandout
  
  CB, as HPDA has alluded to, Luxon stumbles along and the voters want some action.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:45am
  - AitchW
    
    I don’t envy Luxon.
    Look what he has to contend with:
    Hostile and biased media;
    Defiant and obstructive public service;
    One totally self serving coalition partner;
    One coalition partner lead by someone smarter than Luxon;
    An economy in tatters;
    God know how many financial landmines yet to explode;
    Race relations in tatters;
    A public impatient for change being led by the nose by the media.
    At least he has some talented ministers trying to make progress against all of the above!
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:27pm
    - R
      
      Not sure who would be the coalition partner smarter than PM Luxon. There are a couple of self serving egos in the coalition partners, not much business, financial and management experience in either of them
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:17pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  This Government is proving like so many before it you cant borrow and spend your way to prosperity. A good Government sets policies that allows business to flourish and keep as much as possible of its earnings to reinvest in the business. Likwise it sets policies that allows individuals to keep as much of their hard earned cash as possible to spend as they see fit. A good Government sticks to doing the basics and doing them well. Stuff that business cant do. It doesnt compete with business.
  Alas Governments in New Zealand do the opposite of the above and wonder why they keep getting bthe same result. There is a name for that.
  
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  December 18, 2025 9:01am
  - Cassandra
    
    The government’s job is to create and foster an environment in which “the market” works. The alternative is of governments picking winners has never worked. Most governments can’t even organise themselves let alone run an economy. Individuals get bright ideas; investors invest; markets work ie some of the bright ideas will profit and some people will become rich, others will have well paid jobs; other ideas will turn out to be not so bright and the investor will lose hls shirt. If the government does its job properly then there’ll be more of the former and less of the latter. Win/win.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:15am
    - Simon
      
      “The government’s job is to create and foster an environment in which “the market” works.”
      
      Lol – mass low wage immigration govt policy settings to drive wages down in a “market” has been a train wreck for NZ. Unfunded off balance sheet liabilities for decades to come. Neolib “market’ failure.
      
      Out of touch with reality.
      
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      December 18, 2025 10:59am
  - tavita
    
    The problem is you don’t win elections by saying we won’t do anything.
    
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    December 18, 2025 10:08am
    - Inandout
      
      tav, yes I recall Kamala during her bid for President saying she wouldn’t do anything different from Biden. Fatal comment.
      
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      December 18, 2025 11:32am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The fresh water poll has never ever had the centre right parties in front, its a total load of bullshit, look at the Varian poll last week, do you really believe Varian is wrong but an unknown non-compliant pollster is correct.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:05am
- wsk12345
  
  of course its not behind a paywall – it favours the media’s preferred narrative!
  
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  December 18, 2025 12:28pm
Scott

Douglas Murray argues that the massacre at Bondi Beach was “inevitable” –

https://www.city-journal.org/article/bondi-beach-australia-shooting-threats-against-jews

Following the attack on Israel by Hamas in 2023 protests in Australia brandished placards saying “gas the Jews”. Nothing was done by Australian authorities. Instead vitriol has been allowed to be poured out against the Jews constantly.

Douglas Murray goes on to say, imagine if after the Christchurch mosque massacre protestors went around the streets proclaiming gas the Muslims. The condemnation all around the world would be universal. Police would have taken immediate action and protestors would have been arrested.

But Muslims get a free pass. The authorities in the west do not want to confront Islam.

Indeed as we speak the UK govt is putting out new definitions of anti Muslim hatred –

“Anti-Muslim hostility is engaging in or encouraging criminal acts, including acts of violence, vandalism of property, and harassment and intimidation whether physical, verbal, written or electronically communicated, which is directed at Muslims or those perceived to be Muslims because of their religion, ethnicity or appearance.

It is also the prejudicial stereotyping and racialisation of Muslims, as part of a collective group with set characteristics, to stir up hatred against them, irrespective of their actual opinions, beliefs or actions as individuals. It is engaging in prohibited discrimination where the relevant conduct – including the creation or use of practices and biases within institutions – is intended to disadvantage Muslims in public and economic life.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/12/uks-islamophobia-anti-muslim-hatred-definition-further-erosion/

So just at the time when massacres are happening in Australia and Christmas markets in Europe are being shut down and the UK govt is refusing to deal with rape gangs, the UK govt is solely concerned with favouring and protecting the Muslims?

Surely this is civilisational suicide?
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December 18, 2025 8:07am
- Philview
  
  Scott,
  There were actually arrests after the Mosque shootings of people abusing Muslims in the aftermath. One that sticks in the mind was a 19 year old law student at Otago University. The mind boggles what was going on in the heads of those people who seemed to be blaming the Muslims for the attack.
  
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  December 18, 2025 10:54am
  - ISeeRed
    
    Every time there’s an Islamist terrorist attack, Christchurch gets trotted out “B-b-b-but far/extreme right-wing violence just as bad! Beware the rise of the far right!” etc. The Bondi Beach massacre is already being spun into “We must also
    fight right-wing extremism!” by some Aussie politicians and commentators.
    
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    December 18, 2025 2:28pm
grumpy

Who would have thought? Surely not! Two out of 5 New York bombing suspects arrested are transgender? What a coincidence!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/12/report-least-2-5-leftist-new-years-eve/
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December 18, 2025 8:09am
- Foxfour
  
  What New York Bombing plot ?
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:17am
  - Cassandra
    
    The Los Angeles one. It’s right next door. Well, same country.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:33am
    - Foxfour
      
      Another coincidence then
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:07am
      - I remember when
        
        Are you being wasted here?
        Are your skills better suited to the mainstream media?
        
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        December 18, 2025 11:44am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to left click the link in grumpy’s comment.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:46am
  - grumpy
    
    Whoops!
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:39am
  - Interested Party
    
    I think they were just arrested for plotting an attack on NY, they may have been from LA
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:46am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They busted a plot to kill celerbrating Americans in LA on New Years eve
    
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    December 18, 2025 11:20am
- grumpy
  
  Sorry, LA bomb plot.
  
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  December 18, 2025 9:40am
- Simon
  
  The Mexico govt bombing plot, arrested former IDF military, released back to Israel October 2001. Nasty attempt at terrorism by Israel.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:01am
mogg

After two years of protecting Pro Pal demonstrators who chant hate speech and antisemitism, London Met Police have now discovered that they can arrest people who shout or sign ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and ‘From the River to the Sea’. What a coincidence that this has come about just after the Bondi Beach massacre.
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December 18, 2025 8:18am
Yvette

Treaty Principles Bill II
Of the sidelined bill –
The proposed law would have scrapped the existing understanding of the Treaty’s principles and replaced them with three new principles: that the government has the right to govern, that everyone has equal rights before the law, and that the only exception to that is where it’s set out in Treaty settlements.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/581907/david-seymour-promises-to-reignite-treaty-principles-debate-in-2026

It would perhaps be better to have a bill that says –
No interpretation of the Treaty shall be of principles which do not support that: the government has the right to govern, that everyone has equal rights before the law including property rights, and that the only exception to this is where it’s set out in Treaty settlements.
And add that the Government is secular and is to favour no religion (or religious aspects of culture) above any other.

This does not replace “Principles” but sets a guardrail for them based on what appears to be the essence of the Treaty.
After 185 years, it is time that some sense is made of the Treaty that is supposedly the “founding document of the nation”.

It is utterly bizarre that of three consecutive Prime Ministers, one says Maori ceded sovereignty, another says they didn’t and a third didn’t know what the first Article was.
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December 18, 2025 8:21am
- PurplePen
  
  The Treaty Principles Bill correctly diagnoses the problem. Palmer’s 1986 insertion of undefined “principles” into the SOE Act created 40 years of judicial expansion beyond what Parliament intended. Parliament didn’t even know what “principles” meant when they inserted it. It became a recurring legislative failure where vague language gets passed without proper definition. Codifying three new principles just entrenches the framework rather than fixing it. Better to remove the undefined “principles” language from legislation entirely. Replace it with specific references to Treaty settlement provisions that protects those rights absolutely while preventing further interpretive expansion. Courts interpret defined rights, not undefined concepts. Parliament makes policy decisions democratically. That fixes Palmer’s error. What a mess though.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:48am
- pdm
  
  Yvette – the third one to whom you refer, a she, hardly knew what day it was.
  
  Her successor was no better and he wants the job back.
  
  Give me a break.
  
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  December 18, 2025 12:54pm
Tomtoddy

In the last few months I have had reason to fly internationally to several different destinations. It has involved seven different airlines despite trying to build Star Alliance Airpoints.

I used to fly Air New Zealand whenever possible and always felt a sense of pride seeing the Koru tail among others at an international airport. It is a sad commentary but they have slipped back in quality to be a long way behind the likes of Singapore Air, Cathay Pacific, Thai Air and Qatar just to name some of the ones we have used lately.

Some of Air NZ’s planes look a little dated, cabin crews are often old, overweight and tired compared to opposition. Their approach is forced, artificial and occasionally, just ordinary, even rude. The airline runs late with no explanation too often.

Even Malaysian Air and Air India were equal or better. Air NZ are often the first window thousands of people have of our country. They are going to be disappointed. Pity, really.
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December 18, 2025 8:32am
- Cassandra
  
  A bit ageist and fatist but I do take your point.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:35am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Pointing out that someone is old or fat doesn’t mean that one is afflicted by an irrational bias or biggotry.
    
    It just means that they have observed people who are old or fat.
    
    Seems to be all about attaching a label to someone these days.
    
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    December 18, 2025 8:49am
    - PurplePen
      
      Yes. It’s not as if old or fat is desirable if marketing and advertising over the decades is anything to go by.
      
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      December 18, 2025 11:52am
    - Jethrod
      
      They probably know their customer base well then.
      
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      December 18, 2025 12:50pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I agree, you never see an older woman on any other airline in the roll of airline hostess, it looks tatty, this is a sign of the DEI bullshittery we had forced on us for 6 years
    
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    December 18, 2025 11:23am
    - NeonTeepee
      
      Try flying domestically in the US. Either very old or very fat.
      
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      December 18, 2025 4:43pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        BA ditto
        
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        December 18, 2025 7:47pm
- Mod88
  
  Air NZ knows the Taxpayer will bail them out. There is no incentive to compete. Add in the DEI/Woke nonsense and there it is.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:37am
- MCōs
  
  A friend of ours flew home to Thailand for a quick trip on Sunday. He daughter made the booking and as a surprise she went business class. As another surprise Mummy paid
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:48am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Even Malaysian Air and Air India were equal or better.’
  
  Safety first!Hopefully that’s where Air NZ and other western airlines excel .
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:54am
- Ghost
  
  You got there, obviously returned alive and didn’t crash. What’s it matter what the staff look like as long as they do their jobs? Some of air nz planes are in need of a refresh but can’t because the other planes are still waiting to have the issues with the engines fixed
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:59am
  - alphabeatrium
    
    Right? So many fussy travellers.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:22am
  - MCōs
    
    Flying is by far the safest way to travel, but my wife is not convinced. She has panic attacks from the turbulence caused by taxiing to the end of the runway.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:56am
    - rouppe
      
      I was sat next to a woman with that affliction many years ago. Only worse because she was gripping the armrest before we’d even pushed back from the gate.
      
      I tried to liken a plane being buffeted by wind or air pressure changes to a boat being buffeted by waves and swells, but she seemed fairly convinced in her imminent mortality.
      
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      December 18, 2025 1:03pm
- Foxfour
  
  Younger generation are more plus sized than the same age group 30 years or more back
  
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  December 18, 2025 9:08am
  - RoboRob
    
    And?
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:31am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    You might be right Fox, but none of them are on Emirates or Qatar for instance.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:39pm
- Burtland
  
  If the latest AirNZ advert is anything to go by, they are positioning themselves as a Pacific Nation Airline – tired airplanes, oversize staff and obscure language are part of the appeal. Next will be KFC on the menu.
  
  https://youtu.be/ufqMzspNc7s
  
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  December 18, 2025 10:08am
  - Flossie
    
    Looking at their latest TV ad people might get the impression that we are only a Pacific island, and not a first world nation. They may even have the idea that they might not be understood if they only speak English.
    
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    December 18, 2025 10:59am
    - greybeard
      
      Same as many other TV ads, not just Air NZ.
      
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      December 18, 2025 11:05am
    - Kevin
      
      If any of us were thrust into a Tardis and sent back 45 years, that one would think NZ not a First World Nation ( whatever the H that means)
      But I admire those old dudes and dudettes immensely, although all gone now.
      
      A great nation requires people with virtue not more money. That should be obvious. Although money is nice.
      
      By the way, the older air hostesses and hosts are excellent to talk with.
      If you’re 16 and stupid the shape might matter.
      
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      December 18, 2025 4:17pm
    - Kevin
      
      Quite a few years ago, I remember my brother on the phone from N Dakota, having just returned from a visit to me. He said “NZ is E Germany without the tanks”. “It doesn’t even have any aircraft carriers”
      Ah ha ha ha.
      Enough truth to be funny. But I heard this in the lounge at Dunedin airport, looking at sheep grazing between the rhododendrons in bloom.
      
      I’m perfectly fine with that
      
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      December 18, 2025 4:23pm
  - lifesgood
    
    They already have KFC flights to Rarotonga. We got on a plane to go there and it was packed with Pacifica people carrying huge packs of KFC to deliver to families. The plane stank, it was nauseating.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:36pm
- Taieri
  
  long way behind the likes of Singapore Air
  —————-
  
  Singapore Airlines standards have also dropped. Travelled with them from Christchurch to Singapore and back a few months ago for the first time since Covid. Not the same airline that I used many times in the past. Unfortunately, there’re no alternatives on this route.
  A big surprise was Lufthansa from Singapore to Munich, with modern aircraft and great service.
  
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  December 18, 2025 10:20am
  - pdm
    
    Friends on once in a life time world trip a number years ago flew into Frankfurt from Dubai or similar and did not like Lufthansa one bit.
    
    It may have been something to do with the hairy armpits of the cabin crew ladies.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:59pm
    - Flossie
      
      We have travelled on Lufthansa once (as a code share). Staff were so rude we will endeavor to use any other airline in future.
      
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      December 18, 2025 3:04pm
  - RoboRob
    
    I think there is no alternative if you are wanting a direct flight but there are plenty of other options if you a willing to do a 1.5hr stop over in AK, Mel or Syd.
    
    That said, the direct flight is awesome and the service usually is great too.
    
    I am flying via Singapore in Febuary and will be flying AirNZ, the first time in over a decade. Will be interesting to compare the experience.
    
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    December 18, 2025 1:09pm
- Skippytony
  
  Agree 100%. At the premium end the gap is stark. Sing, Malaysian, Emirates leave Air NZ for dead.
  Air NZ lounges tired, crowded and indifferent food.
  Im Koru silver trending to gold. If there was any choice other than Jetstar on most of my flights we would have been long gone. AirNZ is not quite last resort for international travel but they are dropping down the batting order.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:04am
  - leoj
    
    Too much maori influence.
    
    Many of us are suffering from maori fatigue.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:50pm
- Mobile Michael
  
  I flew ANA last month. You have to be a model to be cabin crew, it seems.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:08am
  - kowtow
    
    AllNippleAir?
    
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    December 18, 2025 3:51pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      ANA L airlines?
      
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      December 18, 2025 7:43pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Donald Beckett! That comment is beneath you.
        
        (Channelling your mother)
        
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        December 18, 2025 7:49pm
- Inandout
  
  Tom, we can’t even say cabin crew salaries are a factor because Air NZ doesn’t even feature in the world’s top 10.
  https://cabincrew24.com/top-10-highest-paying-countries-for-cabin-crew/
  
  Maybe it is just that many NZers in all walks simply don’t care anymore, unless they are employers of course.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:42am
- Gussy Fink-Nottle
  
  Dowdy hostesses aside, it’s the godawful music they play way too loud before and after every flight.
  
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  December 18, 2025 3:02pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Air NZ been in terminal decline for at least a decade now, not that I’ve flown them recently.
  
  Back in the early 2000s they were pretty good, and yeah, I guess even I felt some grudging pride in them – even if I’d have preferred a little Union Jack on the tail, and maybe a rebrand back to Tasman Empire Airways.
  
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  December 18, 2025 9:19pm
redeye

Online child exploitation was not victimless, the judge said.

“It is a crime that fuels the cycle of sexual abuse and exploitation of real children internationally.

Too right.

A Tasman man has been jailed for more than five years for collecting thousands of child exploitation photos and videos, described by a judge as graphic and horrific.

Still sounds a bit lenient to me.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360915379/man-jailed-more-five-years-collecting-child-exploitation-material
But this still seems, one rule for thee … I would have thought being a high profile, former deputy police commissioner, would have warranted a tougher sentence but alas, not in New Zealand.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/582088/jevon-mcskimming-avoids-jail-sentence-over-possession-of-child-sexual-exploitation-material
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December 18, 2025 8:33am
- Gravelroad
  
  This was discussed on newstalkzb this morning.
  Nick Mills adamant that McSkimming should not be imprisoned because of personal safety issues.
  Terrible things happen to criminals in prisons apparently.
  Not much concern expressed about the terrible things that happen to babies and children in porn movies – but who would be surprised at that?
  Most of the callers and txters did not agree with Mr Mills.
  How about a sentence which includes a sizeable donation to abused child welfare organisations?
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:05am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Apparently about 30% of the prison population is in segregation for their own safety.
    Cops have gone to prison before and have survived.
    Is the McSkimming judge saying that the prison service is not fit for purpose?.
    
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    December 18, 2025 3:29pm
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    He’s usually sensible but clearly hasn’t thought through the logic of this – those put in positions of power, influence and renown by the community and in this case paid by the taxpayer – should get punished differently when they offend compared to common or garden scumbags?
    It was McSkimming’s decision to be a plod. It was McSkimming’s decision to be in a job that is about law enforcement. It was McSkimming’s decision to then look at depraved and illegal material, which he knew to be an offence.
    Sounds like it is a McSkimming problem if he has to hide in a special sealed off part of the prison, not ours.
    
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    December 19, 2025 2:18am
- rouppe
  
  McSkimming got a 50% discount… When does the cap take effect?
  
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  December 18, 2025 1:06pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  The New Zealand justice system is comedy.
  
  McSkimming should do prison time. Besides anything else, it sends an appropriate message to the rest of the police force and the public.
  
  But as always its one rule for various classes of ‘elites’ and another for everyone else. Just like Britain, New Zealand has clearly developed a two tier justice system. Just the other day some woman was given diversion (which involves an admission of guilt and probably also a ‘fine’ – actually a donation to charity) over social media posts that angered some trans activist.
  
  Apparently trans activists are also honorary ‘elites’, despite mostly being adult men with paraphilias that relate to embodying various aspects of femininity – clothing, behavior, body parts, the adoption of a receptive sexual role, etc. Very odd how being into the right types of kink gets you the kid glove treatment in a courtroom even as you harness the law to run harassment campaigns.
  
  So we don’t have a functioning justice system. We have a huge social activism project, run by elites who get to break the law and barely even be inconvenienced.
  
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  December 18, 2025 9:32pm
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    The whole handwringing that McSkimming should be sentenced like anyone else unfortunately fails because of Section 104 (f) of the Sentencing Act 2002 (I’m trusting Gemini has that right).
    Now I don’t agree with this because I think a murder victim is the same whether they are a cop or a bloke walking home from the pub – the loss of life and affect is the same, BUT if we are going to add extra years for killing a cop because they were doing their job, then surely the Dep Commissioner watching abhorrent and illegal material on his work PC surely must trigger the same logic that he is different to an unemployed saddo in his mum’s basement.
    
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    December 19, 2025 2:23am
Swifty

Here’s my view on the polling of late, both with the the current CR block with enough, or with the crazy left block ahead.

It’s all meaningless at this stage of the election cycle.

It all rests of the economic progress we make between now and the run up to the election.

Good economic news and the Coalition will romp home.

If things muddle along as they are then the loopy left are in with a chance.
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December 18, 2025 9:04am
- MCōs
  
  It’s not meaningless because although the various leaders feign indifference it has a bearing on how they approach the run up to the election campaign.
  National can hardly be confident their performance has the overwhelming support of the voters.
  Nobody can.
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:05am
  - Swifty
    
    Meaningless in the sense that the election can be predicted based on polling results this far out.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:47pm
  - leoj
    
    National may be the largest represented among the coalition but they have also been the most benign and disappointing due to lack of a spine.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:54pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Well, GDP just announced at 1.1% for the quarter
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:25am
RoboRob

McSkimmings sentence is a great example of the failure of our Judges. The game, where they set a starting sentence that is just low enough that they can discount it to less then two years, which automatically allows for home D. They then give home D which is automatically half of the sentence.

In McSkimmings case 3yrs less 40% (the max discount) gives 18mths. Judge converts that to home D, which is automatically halved to 9mths as a jail sentence is available for release after half the time.

An absolute joke. That someone is a position of responsibilty and working in law enforcement could commit serious crimes and get 9mths of netflix on the tax payers dime. Great way to set an example. If I was some no name under similar charges I would pushing the judge for home D, if its hard enough for a top cop, its hard enough for Joe Bloggs.
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December 18, 2025 9:08am
- sirknz
  
  Like they were ever going to send him to prison.
  
  He could’ve killed someone and ended up with the same sentence, like the girl from the wealthy family who was high on drugs and ran over an actual boy scout a few years back.
  
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  December 18, 2025 10:39am
- Hard Cheese
  
  It’s a joke, he got the maximum 25% discount for an early guilty plea. I thought early guilty pleas received a discount because it meant the victims didn’t have to relive the crime through a trial. That wouldn’t apply in McSkimmings’ case. Why did he get any discount, let alone the maximum 25%?
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:44am
- wsk12345
  
  I wouldn’t be convinced its 9mths of netflix. More likely 9mths of pornhub or the child version thereof.
  
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  December 18, 2025 12:46pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpQcalqPcKE
It’s Over – Volkswagen shuts down in Germany After 88 Years.
What the entire Second World War could not achieve, with its massive Allied bombings, was accomplished by the stupid decisions of modern German politics. [Make yourself dependent on cheap Russian energy. Then wonder why its a bad idea when war breaks out.]
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December 18, 2025 9:16am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  To be accurate, Volkswagen was completely flattened by WW2. It was restarted after the war by British Army Royal Engineer Major Ivan Hurst.
  
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  December 18, 2025 12:23pm
  - sungsamning
    
    And now it has been flattened by listening to ‘green’ nutters.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:32pm
- RoboRob
  
  I find it strange that she criticised the German govt for upping its military spend and Europe for cutting its imports of Russian gas, yet no mention of the Gernal decomission of Nuclear power following Fukishima that has pushed prices up massively.
  
  Europe was stupid to rely on Russia for gas and now that Russian ambitions are clear, Europe does need to spend more on defence. Decomisioning the nuclear power supply after Fukishima was a choice and it was a stupid one.
  
  Her implication that Germans should fund the Russian war by purchasing more of their oil and that Germany shouldn’t spend money on defence, is, crazy.
  
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  December 18, 2025 1:32pm
  - Kevin
    
    Yes, but. Some day, Ukraine and Russia will stop fighting. Long long after, hatred may cease. To be topical.
    Germany and Russia don’t have to be buddies and prob can’t be, but from reunification to 2007 was helluva better than prior. Or now. It is the interests of no one who is sensible or not running things to see it get worse between them. But, elites at risk may not think this way if getting heaved out is possible.
    
    A friend who is German supports the shutting down of the nuclear plants, costly as that has been, because of ‘the German character’, he explained.
    Hyperrational until they’re not, and then look out. Nuclear power plants are targets if stupidity increases ( which it is) and temptations if the Romantic switch flips ( as it has before, and new generations are always dumbkopfs with no historical memory). In a theatre where other perhaps malign actors have a say. Not just Russia.
    
    Utilitarians can’t understand this. NZ is Valhalla for Utilitarians, so, unlikely to get it.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:41pm
- Wandering Star
  
  It’s less that they depended on cheap Russian energy (and is there a better type of energy than cheap?) its that Germany’s alleged ally, the US, destroyed the conduit delivering said energy. Thereafter, they had to rely on the expensive imported US energy.
  
  The war in Ukraine has certainly not been good for Europe (because the US won’t allow good relations with Russia) but it has certainly benefitted US interests.
  
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  December 18, 2025 1:37pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Lol, I think you missed the memo. Its the Europeans that dont want to end the war, its the US that wants to do that.
    
    Oh and it was Ukrainians that blew up the pipeline, the one that Joe biden allowed and without which the war wouldn’t have started.
    
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    December 18, 2025 2:42pm
- Albie
  
  Calm the farm Sun. If you watch the video you will see they are closing the Dresden plant. Not to say that VW don’t have their problems, partly brought on by Germany’s insane green energy policies.
  
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  December 18, 2025 3:38pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Oh, only Dresden. The’green’ nutters will want them to close the other plants later.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:34pm
sungsamning

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/12/17/fords-felonious-failure/
Ford’s Felonious Failure.
At some point, there will be no news about the Ford Motor Company’s electric vehicle fiasco. But we’re not there yet, as the most recent reports show that the automaker is paying dearly for its commitment to a Potemkin market built by a government that promised favors to companies that would follow its agenda.
Ford’s EV misfortunes have reached a nearly unimaginable low. The company announced Monday that it’s taking a $19.5 billion writedown while eliminating a number of its EV models. Reuters calls it “the most dramatic example yet of the auto industry’s retreat from battery-powered models,” while the Daily Mail says it’s “a major retreat from Ford’s most ambitious EV bet.”
Energy author Robert Bryce simply says ord’s EV fixation was “felony stupid” and wonders how CEO Jim Farley still has a job. [Will EVs become collector items as production is phased out? Will future car museums have them as static exhibits. Minus the batteries ofcourse.]
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December 18, 2025 9:16am
- Hard Cheese
  
  Meanwhile, in the real world
  
  Global EV sales are booming in 2025, hitting 18.5 million units year-to-date by November, a 21% jump from 2024, driven by massive growth in Europe (+33%), strong demand in China (11.6M units), and a slowdown in North America post-tax credit, with projections nearing 20 million for the full year and EVs taking over a quarter of global auto sales. Key trends include fierce competition, stronger hybrid uptake, and significant market share in countries like Norway, Singapore, and China.
  
  Key Figures (Jan-Nov 2025)
  
  Global: 18.5 million units (+21% YoY)
  China: 11.6 million units (+19% YoY)
  Europe: 3.8 million units (+33% YoY)
  North America: 1.7 million units (-1% YoY)
  Rest of World: 1.5 million units, (+48% YoY)
  
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  December 18, 2025 11:55am
  - RoboRob
    
    The problem is that China, with its massive subsidies and poor working conditions, is the one selling all the EVs. Becuase they are cheap, often 30-50% cheaper then other brands. Historic manufacturers are struggling.
    
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    December 18, 2025 2:45pm
  - CJames
    
    How much of the EV sales are from the dumping of unsold Chinese EV cars onto the market? An unsustainable market and one that will cause untold environmental issues when the cars of scrapped.
    
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    December 18, 2025 3:34pm
  - Ian
    
    I think if you counted pure EVs, the sales figures will show a fall. Norway gives huge subsidies for EVs funded by their North Sea oil production – bit of hypocrisy. China massive subsidies as well. Singapore – well, it’s not big – size of Lake Taupo. You can probably live with a pure EV there. Hybrid EVs are a sensible idea…
    
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    December 18, 2025 3:34pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, and sometimes, the Chinese manufacturers find enough space to store the unsold ones.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:36pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360915978/business-owner-who-failed-pay-workers-nearly-50000-sentenced-home-detention
When I first saw the headline I said to myself
“Goodness Gracious Me, I wonder who this could be ?”
No surprise. It is all too common.
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December 18, 2025 9:31am
- Chris2
  
  Immigrants who set up a business and hire people from their own country ought to lose their own residency status and be deported if they are convicted of migrant exploitation.
  
  It’s the only way to end this imported practice of exploting their own kind.
  
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  December 18, 2025 9:49am
  - sirknz
    
    They will always claim this is a hardship on their families so they must stay in NZ to remain with their families.
    
    I think that if their family is dependant on the perpetrator for their lifestyle, then the family goes back home with them too, this way the family and friends will be more likley to talk out against the exploitation.
    
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    December 18, 2025 10:43am
    - Sir Henry Morgan
      
      The families should be deported too. In most cases they will be aware the law is being broken.
      
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      December 18, 2025 9:36pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      That argument becomes more powerful if the family came in on the immigration coattails of the perpetrator.
      
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      December 19, 2025 2:26am
  - Swifty
    
    Agreed.
    
    We’ve got to completely change the risk/reward ratio.
    
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    December 18, 2025 10:43am
  - MCōs
    
    Do you think immigrants are the only people who exploit workers?
    
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    December 18, 2025 11:19am
    - PurplePen
      
      Probably not. But at least with an immigrant we can send them back “home” and don’t then have the on-going costs social and otherwise associated with their wrong-doing and rehabilitation.
      
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      December 18, 2025 11:59am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      What I know for certain is that if we remove those migrants who exploit other migrants then migrant exploitation will decrease.
      
      Surely you think this is a good outcome?
      
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      December 18, 2025 12:26pm
    - rouppe
      
      They’re a not inconsiderable percentage of reported cases. Quite a few Singhs in the news recently as well.
      
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      December 18, 2025 1:10pm
    - sirknz
      
      No, Green MPs seemed to be in on this sort of thing until recently…
      
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      December 18, 2025 2:43pm
  - Jethrod
    
    Before I read the article , I thought that is a particular ethnicity. Mmm, I was correct.
    
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    December 18, 2025 12:55pm
  - Sir Henry Morgan
    
    100%. They should be deported if they break the law full stop. We have this bizarre situation where it seems immigrants are allowed to go feral the moment they get their PR.
    
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    December 18, 2025 9:35pm
rouppe

The law to prevent voting-day enrollment has passed.

The Electoral Commission has objected, saying 55,000 people will be blocked from casing their votes.

All I will say to that is, what a load of bollocks.
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December 18, 2025 9:58am
- R
  
  Well 55000 would be voters will have to get of the couch and go and ENROLL before election day. That’s if the 55k are real persons!
  
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  December 18, 2025 10:31am
- sirknz
  
  How do you find the time to update your details in the 3 years between elections?
  
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  December 18, 2025 10:43am
  - PurplePen
    
    that made me laugh out loud! Good one.
    
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    December 18, 2025 11:59am
- MCōs
  
  What is the reasoning behind disallowing same day enrollments, apart from delaying the vote count?
  
  2 14
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  December 18, 2025 11:31am
  - RoboRob
    
    Whats the reasoning behind not accepting votes after election day?
    
    You have to set cut offs for things. When the cut off was election day the system couldn’t handle it. Is three years not long enough to register to vote?
    
    7 1
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    December 18, 2025 11:45am
  - PurplePen
    
    Oddly enough the Electoral Commission actually supported ending same-day enrolment to reduce the growing volume of special votes, which strain their resources and delay official results such that they may not be able to meet the 20 day legislated deadline.
    
    5 2
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    December 18, 2025 12:05pm
  - alphabeatrium
    
    Why is that not a good enough reason?
    Why do we expect people to get a passport -before- they travel overseas?
    
    8 2
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    December 18, 2025 12:46pm
  - rouppe
    
    In my personal opinion, it is just begging for abuse. Last minute anything is a red flag event for “dodgy”.
    
    There is no excuse for those 18 and older not being ready for a once in three years event. 17 year olds have a pathway as I linked to.
    
    Recently moving and not being in the correct electorate is a red herring. The party vote is the more important one and that doesn’t care what electorate you’re in.
    
    8 3
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    December 18, 2025 1:15pm
  - Ghost
    
    With technology today it should be pretty quick to confirm a person’s registration on the day. Those who register on the day cast special votes that aren’t counted until their details are verified, so not easy to abuse.
    
    2 12
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    December 18, 2025 1:33pm
  - leoj
    
    To identify the lazy and the dumb.
    
    0 0
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    December 18, 2025 9:58pm
- RoboRob
  
  As if the hapless electoral commision has any idea of how many people will be ‘blocked’ from voting. They couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewry. The 55k is a mad up number.
  
  8 1
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  December 18, 2025 11:43am
Ghost

Guess nz got lucky

A Hastings-based man who planned a mass stabbing attack at his court hearing has been sentenced to jail.

The 22-year-old, who has interim name suppression, previously pleaded guilty at the Napier District Court to 13 charges of indecent communications, distributing objectionable material, and for threatening to commit a mass stabbing attack at his 17 December sentencing.

Article
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December 18, 2025 10:16am
- Libertarians are right
  
  I’m sure I saw a bunch of “orange man bad” articles about the FBI field office opening up here.
  
  11 2
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  December 18, 2025 10:22am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Article: “On 28 September, the FBI alerted DIA that he planned to commit a mass stabbing attack on his court date.”
    
    You would think that the FBI would liaise through the NZ SIS ?
    
    5 0
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    December 18, 2025 11:06am
  - kowtow
    
    LAR
    
    ‘Top’ news story on RNZ website , right now, is a TDS thing about portraits in the WH.
    
    No shit . Of all the news stories in all l the towns in all the world and they run a TDS one.
    
    7 2
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    December 18, 2025 2:14pm
  - MCōs
    
    The FBI branch office in NZ wasn’t necessary for that exchange of information.
    It’s more to do with keeping an eye on China and five eyes information sharing
    Btw
    The FBI also has an office in Canberra
    
    3 2
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    December 18, 2025 2:47pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Luck had nothing to do with it, to paraphrase Mae West.
  
  1 1
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  December 18, 2025 12:27pm
Spam

and for threatening to commit a mass stabbing attack at his 17 December sentencing.

He was planning to commit a mass stabbing during the sentencing? Wow.

(I’m not that stupid, but apparently the ‘journalist’ is).
11 3
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December 18, 2025 10:31am
- Spam
  
  OK – I take it all back, and apologize to the journalist. Apparently he was planning on committing a stabbing at the sentencing hearing.
  
  I found the article confusing in that it mixes tenses and timelines.
  
  11 3
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  December 18, 2025 10:37am
  - leoj
    
    Journalist a product of our failing education system.
    
    0 0
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    December 18, 2025 10:01pm
Jack5

Winston Peters was the Old Entertainer in his Christmas speech to Parliament yesterday. Political tub thumping the way it still ought to be.

You can hear Peters at the link below to video of the party leaders’ Christmas speeches. Peters begins at 3:20:04 into the clip.

“We are the only social conservative party — and proud of it,” says Peters as he picks up momentum. “We are the only patriotic party: we stand proud to be patriots of a country called New Zealand.”

Labour’s no longer the party of the workers, he jibes. “They are now a party full of apparatchiks who have graduated from some sociologic [sic] party brimming with Left-wing, brain-washing propaganda. Most of them think Manual Labour is the Prime Minister of Mexico.”

The Brittanica Dictionary definition of apparatchik: ” a very loyal member of an organisation (such as a company or political party) who always obeys orders.”

And Peters on the Greens: “They don’t talk about the environment any more … they care more about gender, wellness, unicorns and a geopolitical war happening on the other side of the world that they know nothing about.”

Chris Luxon (begins at 2:39:01) and David Seymour (3:09:48) spoke intelligently and well, Luxon’s serious points including NZ’s balance of payments being back on level after four years in the red — something I hadn ‘t picked up from the media.

Chris Hipkins speaks from about 2:50:00, talking about Labour, school lunches, Labour.

Marama Davidson speaks at 2:59:40.

Party leaders’ Christmas speeches video:

https://www.youtube.com/live/5M2-UbxIG1k?si=QLiV8PCNKp2gBPTy
7 3
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December 18, 2025 10:33am
- Quail
  
  Balance of payments back on a level just reflects the NZD fall in value against the rest of the world.
  View NZD vs TWI ( Trade weighted index) and the horrific losses to those on fixed incomes and savers becomes crystal clear.
  
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  December 18, 2025 8:37pm
  - Quail
    
    Just to add a reference look up the Big Mac method of assessing purchasing power and exchange rate comparison.
    I used to buy a cheeseburger for $2 early this decade, tonight the same order cost me $5.
    So the dollar has devalued 150% or thereabouts!
    15% per annum!
    
    0 0
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    December 18, 2025 9:29pm
Swifty

Taking wage and salary decisions out of the hands of employers and employees, the ones most directly affected and whose livelihoods are at risk, and giving them over to academics, social workers, retired MPs and assorted unionists, who suffer no consequence for wrong decisions, is one of the worst ideas in the history of Western civilisation.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2019017469/marilyn-waring-on-take-her-pay-equity-fight-to-the-people

Next steps will be ALL wages and salaries will be determined by such government-appointed committees, and all clothed as an issue of human rights and ‘economic justice’.
14 1
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December 18, 2025 11:06am
- leoj
  
  Minimum wage is a disaster. Upping it will only cause higher unemployment and put more out of business.
  
  1 0
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  December 18, 2025 10:03pm
Swifty

Muslim speaker in London calls Israel a tumour which must be removed from the Middle East:

https://x.com/lizarosen0000/status/2001377600946806954?s=46
8 1
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December 18, 2025 11:26am
- Lance
  
  Colour me shocked.. X is an open sewer.
  /sarc/
  
  5 3
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  December 18, 2025 2:56pm
imalwaysright

Is there a country on earth, whose population is historically white, where the current descendants are afforded the same cultural and racial respect and protection as the inhabitants of non-white countries ?
7 1
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December 18, 2025 11:40am
I remember when

Race is biological, describing physical traits inherited from your parents.
Ethnicity is your cultural identity, chosen or learned from your culture and family.

Should we make Maori a race and being New Zealanders ethnicity?
4 3
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December 18, 2025 12:05pm
Swifty

“The co-founder of Australians for Palestine: “Melbourne is ours. Australia is ours. The world is ours.”

https://x.com/eyakoby/status/2001312624819032412?s=46

I know of no other group who talks like this.
10 1
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December 18, 2025 12:13pm
Jack5

A “Miss Finland” title winner lost her title after she made a racist, anti-Asian gesture with her fingers to her eyes.

Sarah Dzafce, 22, born to a Finnish mother and a father from Kosovo, made the racial eye gesture you can see in the link below.

She wouldn’t have known that Finnish immigrants to the US a century ago were discriminated as “China Swedes,” and that around 1900, some Americans suggested Finnish immigrants should be shut out under the Asian Exclusion Act.

About a tenth of Finland’s population are classified as ethnic non-Finns. The Finnish language and genetics of the majority show Finns ancestors came from the Finnic groups in eastern Russia-central Asia.

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/society-culture-and-history/social-issues/miss-finland-stripped-of-title-over-racial-discrimination-controversy/ar-AA1SjXcw
6 0
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December 18, 2025 1:46pm
- Ghost
  
  I watched a nice video yesterday
  
  Teacher says whoever can answer this question can have friday off. She asks the class “who can name who said. I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!”
  
  Asian girl puts her hand up, answers “Theodore Roosevelt”
  
  Teacher. You can have Friday off.
  
  Girl. I will be in on friday, as Asians we value our education.
  
  Teacher. Who can name who said “My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
  
  Mexican girl. that was John F.Kennedy, but as a Mexican I know how important education is so I will be in on Friday.
  
  Boy. God damn illegal immigrants
  
  Teacher. Who said that?
  
  Boy. Donald Trump, see you suckers Monday.
  
  11 1
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  December 18, 2025 2:11pm
Swifty

Jewish businesses under attack in Oz:

https://x.com/v_j_freeman/status/2001203790955843750?s=46
6 2
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December 18, 2025 2:03pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  I think many people are quietly sick to the teeth of the hatred and insanity imported by one certain cult.
  
  4 0
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  December 18, 2025 9:06pm
  - leoj
    
    Quiet is not going to cut it.
    
    We need to start deporting – heavily.
    
    Islam is not compatible with Wester civilization.
    
    0 0
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    December 18, 2025 10:06pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Correct.
      Islamic countries don’t tolerate behaviour that doesn’t suit them. Why can’t we stand our ground and do the same here?
      
      0 0
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      December 19, 2025 7:57am
Swifty

We might be seeing the price of our cheese and butter at the shops falling before too long:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/582186/fonterra-lowers-milk-price-forecast-amid-strong-supply
6 1
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December 18, 2025 3:59pm
- kowtow
  
  The supermarkets will be slow to pass on any “savings”.
  
  5 1
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  December 18, 2025 5:28pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360916139/teacher-jailed-sexual-conduct-five-pupils-two-schools

This indescribably awful person may be only 27 years old but he has already ruined the lives of several kids.
I have 6 young grandchildren – If I was to express what I thought should happen to him I would be arrested. What a piece of filth.
6 2
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December 18, 2025 4:42pm
- Ghost
  
  On the positive, he got jail
  
  Unlike This teacher or This teacher
  
  It’s actually surprising when you look how many teachers are grooming/abusing students.
  
  7 0
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  December 18, 2025 5:15pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    When asked by a psychologist why he robbed banks, a bank robber said “because that’s where the money is”. Duh!
    
    Ditto scout masters and Catholic priests, until the people and their children moved away from those activities.
    
    But, kids can’t avoid teachers, and so these predators become teachers. Which is not to say that all teachers are predators, of course.
    
    0 0
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    December 18, 2025 8:03pm
Tauhei Notts

I read where Radio New Zealand National are going to get a puffed up puff ball to co-host Morning Report.
Is this some sort of death wish?
12 3
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December 18, 2025 5:10pm
- Boy Geoff
  
  Splendid news!
  
  If anyone’s got the guts to relay Willie Jackson’s MUMA story then Campbell’s your man…
  
  Heh
  
  7 1
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  December 18, 2025 5:37pm
- Flossie
  
  Hopefully this keeps him too busy to appear on our screens?
  
  7 1
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  December 18, 2025 6:11pm
Ghost

I wonder how china will reply to this

The United States on Wednesday approved $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, the largest ever U.S. weapons package for the island which is under increasing military pressure from China.

The Taiwan arms sale announcement is the second under U.S. President Donald Trump’s current administration, and comes as Beijing ramps up its military and diplomatic pressure against Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

Article
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December 18, 2025 5:40pm
Crafty

The opposition really are a bunch of losers! A stellar growth figure and they still have a whinge. Yes NZ has had a couple of rough years but these trolls are so negative, how anyone could think of voting for them is beyond me.
9 2
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December 18, 2025 5:41pm
Swifty

After arch-lefties Forbes and Ferguson are employed to replace Kim Hill, RNZ follow up with another tribal arch-leftie for Morning Report.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/582214/john-campbell-announced-as-new-co-host-of-morning-report

Just to rub salt into the wounds.

Gone is any pretence of balance and even-handedness – RNZ are now just completely out of control, stacking the deck in their favour time after time.
12 3
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December 18, 2025 5:55pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Worry not…
  Just stop listening to the damn thing…
  
  I was once a Morning Report addict, but I began to tune out when Guyon Espiner started babbling away.
  
  Now I might catch an item or two, but 3 hours of listening to inane chatter is more than my poor tummy can take.
  
  I exhausted my capacity for empathy & emotion during Jacinda’s reign and am not prepared to subject my battered sensibilities to John Campbell’s dripping solicitudes.
  
  8 1
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  December 18, 2025 7:23pm
  - Swifty
    
    No worries, have ceased with Morning Report for quite a few years now.
    
    Still, it’s the principle – they’re not even trying to balance things these days.
    
    And it’s our tax money.
    
    5 1
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    December 18, 2025 7:58pm
Swifty

Tukaki doing Willie Jackson’s dirty work:

https://x.com/tukakimatt/status/2001545936787640469?s=46
1 0
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December 18, 2025 8:40pm
- Ghost
  
  I agree, play the ball, not the person. Pathetic to call a woman that
  
  1 0
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  December 18, 2025 8:51pm
  - Swifty
    
    Yeah, I wouldn’t have said that, however that’s not the main issue by a long shot.
    
    1 0
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    December 18, 2025 9:17pm
    - Ghost
      
      No, but that alone is a distraction, and would turn some off from the story,
      
      Can you recall what the article was about that called female politicians the c word, or can you just remember she called them that? The story is now easy to turn to what slater called her.
      
      1 0
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      December 18, 2025 9:38pm
      - Swifty
        
        Pay equity wasn’t it.
        
        0 0
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        December 18, 2025 10:31pm
Swifty

Tukaki reckons McCarten and Slater etc are full of lies and there is no substance to the allegations:

https://x.com/tukakimatt/status/2001543664343134299?s=46
1 0
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December 18, 2025 8:48pm

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