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December 19, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 19 December 2025

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General Debate

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Chuck Bird

I hope there will be a good turn out. I will be driving up from the Waikato to attend the march.

March Against Antisemitism – 21 December 3pm, Aotea Square, Auckland.

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/12/march_against_antisemitism_-_21_december_3pm_aotea_square_auckland.html
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December 19, 2025 8:04am
- mogg
  
  Will Hipkins “first act when in government be to recognise Palestine”.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:18am
- Mark Adams
  
  I’ll be there.
  
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  December 19, 2025 12:16pm
- Nobby2
  
  I will be there too.
  
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  December 19, 2025 1:46pm
Yvette

Jacinda books and truth?
• During her first Waitangi appearance [2018] as Prime Minister, Ardern was the first female prime minister granted the right to speak on the mahau (porch) of Te Whare Rūnanga (the meeting house). It is a significant cultural event where leaders often face scrutiny and protest. She pledged to return to Waitangi annually to face the community and be scrutinised on her government’s progress. She famously stated, “One day I want to be able to tell my child that I earned the right to stand here, and only you can tell me when I have done that”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pm-jacinda-ardern-hold-me-to-account-when-i-return-to-waitangi/WFKF4IMFHEFL6L5AD3NQ6GY4OU/

• An Incident
During a media stand-up at Waitangi in February 2019, a reporter asked Ardern about the content of Article One. She initially replied, “Oh, Article One? On the spot?”. After a prompt from a minister [Jackson] standing behind her, she said, “Kāwanatanga”.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2019/02/04/jacinda-ardern-fumbles-over-what-treaty-of-waitangi-articles-say-article-one-on-the-spot/

Ms Ardern may not have had the details of the Treaty at her fingertips today, but she said she learnt about it at school, and expects it to be taught. She was asked did she think the Treaty of Waitangi should be a compulsory part of the New Zealand school curriculum.”Certainly, I learnt about the Treaty as part of my education, and many of our children and young people will and should as part of learning about Aotearoa’s history,” she said.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2019/02/04/jacinda-ardern-fumbles-over-what-treaty-of-waitangi-articles-say-article-one-on-the-spot/

2018 “One day I want to be able to tell my child that I earned the right to stand here”
2019 “Oh, Article One? On the spot? Kawanatanga, sorry, excuse me,” she added when prompted by Willie Jackson and other ministers standing behind her.
But it seems no one really held Ardern to account as she had asked.

However was it Willie Jackson and leverage (even maybe threatening ceding Labour) of the Maori Caucus which may have helped empty Jacinda’s tank for her? Did they hold her to account?

But then, some tend to think it may have perhaps been Jacinda who had suggested, to formulate action to skirt of some old stale, white male hierarchy, that newly appointed Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran [Ardern’s previous flatmate] have coffee with Carol Hirschfeld.
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December 19, 2025 8:04am
- imalwaysright
  
  She told us when she quit that it was because her tenk wus emdy, yet she said this year she left because she thought she could use her skills to better effect elsewhere….
  I think she lied both times.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:30am
  - Yvette
    
    Imalwaysright, and you are most likely right on both counts there too.
    
    Also among conspiracy theories is the idea that what pressure was bought to bear on her in Maori matter matters, not an area she was keen on but obviously made considerable concessions, it was plain they could not be kept occurring, or reach peak-Maori, or would cause wailing and misery on being curbed, so it all may have been a vast car-crash in waiting, and she did not want to wait around for that occurrence.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:22am
  - nigel2010
    
    Skills!!!!! what skills she had a compliant press where the hardest question asked was how is your wedding plans progressing, she ran the country into the ground and skipped town as soon as it became hard
    
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    December 19, 2025 12:08pm
  - jacthecat
    
    ”Úse her skills …”? So how exactly has she done that in the ensuing three years …. other than relentlessly self-promote Brand Ardern.
    
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    December 19, 2025 12:53pm
  - cmm
    
    We were always just an annoying stepping stone to her international goals.
    
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    December 19, 2025 3:41pm
- kowtow
  
  For a woman whose regime had such a radical agenda , based as much of it was on race , she really wasn’t at all on top of her brief.
  
  I’ll always remember the day after she took the lead from Little she was asked about that day’s Reserve bank meeting on OCR , she wasn’t aware it was on. From a senior opposition front bencher .Free pass from the adoring media though , who’d have crucified a blue or yellow team member for that ignorance.
  
  I reckon she’s actually really thick , relied on “advisers” and got away with what she did because of an extremely collaborating media who basically didn’t hold them to account.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:50am
  - amospicton
    
    I think it was GDP – Hosking asked her about it and she clearly didn’t even know what it was. But still, she was kind. Oh, wait…..
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:18am
  - mogg
    
    From memory I think that she mixed up the OCR with GDP when asked by Hosking
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:23am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I don’t think she realised that OCR and GDP are initialisms. She may have thought they were words she hadn’t yet heard of.
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:52am
  - David Garrett
    
    Kowtow. Arderen and I were newbies in 2008. I had a little bit to do with her – not much to be fair. She was quite pleasant in person – 100X more so than Labour harridans like Ruth Dyson.
    
    But it was also quickly obvious that she was none too bright, and in the House she spoke like the second speaker of the 6th form girls’ debating team.
    
    By the time she became PM she spoke like the head of the 6th form girls’ debating team – but then u would expect some improvement in eight years or whatever it was
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:43am
    - imalwaysright
      
      DG
      
      I don’t think words such as ‘somethink’ ‘fussdating’ and ‘koind’ would be in the vocabulary of a sixth form debater.
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:00am
      - kowtow
        
        Yep would jepradise their chances of geddin’ on the team.
        
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        December 19, 2025 1:05pm
    - R
      
      6th form girls debating;….. bit of an insult to the usually very capable girls of the debating teams
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:42am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “By the time she became PM she spoke like the head of the 6th form girls’ debating team”
      
      I always felt they way she spoke to the nation was much like a sunday school teacher talking to a class of 10 year olds.
      
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      December 19, 2025 7:05pm
  - kowtow
    
    Not GDP and not Hosking.
    
    This was on the campaign trail .Outdoor setting media scrum type setting.
    
    But if she also stuffed up on Hosking on GDP well , more proof of my assertion.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:48am
  - Ruahine
    
    Her ‘advisers’ were Nania Mahuta and Willy Jackson.
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:43am
- JackRabbit
  
  For someone in her position: Claiming racial equality, and “knowing” more than those around her, and having studied the treaty in School, it should have been as simple as asking Jeremy Clarkson the the right hand rule of driving.
  
  Same as Hipkins, having been married and fathered children and not knowing what a woman is.
  
  Some people have a limited capacity to think, and extensive indoctrination e.g. Marxist indoctrination, overwrites critical areas of the brain/mind, resulting in loss of rational functions and memory.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:50am
  - kowtow
    
    ‘Some people have a limited capacity to think’
    
    The image of Jackson on her shoulder literally having to prompt her , to keep her “out of trouble’ like a naughty school girl , not having done her homework, on her key self proclaimed project , epitomises that whole regime.
    
    Speaking of which , the only time she actually looked in trouble , publicly was when she was at the podium of truth after the absent minister of health went biking and the media did go for her , she was getting more and more exasperated , looked really annoyed at the questioning …….and then out of the blue some journo asked an off topic patsy and bang the balloon burst , the storm ended and she was saved .
    
    There’s a story there about who the hell that journo was , and why .And no it wasn’t Jessica or Tova.
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:29am
    - imalwaysright
      
      She was rarely in front of a camera without a script in her hands.
      
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      December 19, 2025 1:55pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    One of my guidelines in life.
    (Hence why I do NOT revere anyone with a Phd. ie Education on a very narrowly defined topic.)
    
    [Mod – stop trying to pass off an ai created post as your own]
    
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    December 19, 2025 5:19pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Ra H, was your post AI generated?
    
    If so, what did you ask AI to do for you specifically?
    
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    December 19, 2025 7:08pm
- Scott
  
  My understanding is that Jacinda was so unpopular that the Labour hierarchy told her to not run for reelection. She did not want to leave but many people hated her and so she bowed out.
  
  I disagree with others assessment of her as a politician however. She was a brilliant communicator that for a time had the public and the media completely under her spell.
  
  Amd she was good at achieving her goals. Under her leadership the People’s Socialist Republic of Aotearoa became a reality. So she achieved what she wanted to achieve. No Prime Minister outside of wartime had more control over the population, compulsory Vax, virtual house arrest for everybody, total control over the economy and empty roads and a cowed population. That’s a socialists utopia! 😎
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:39am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I agree with your first paragraph, however giving her credit for the destruction of the country is counter to her ability.
    
    She was the sales rep only.
    
    The actual destruction was very well planned and executed in concert with the media, public service, judiciary, and the unions.
    
    To believe that she masterminded any of that is a stretch.
    
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    December 19, 2025 2:02pm
Tomtoddy

You have to worry about our collective sanity. A court has fined a homeowner $16,000 for cutting some branches off a tree – not even a native – because it takes a notified resource consent to do so. Her lawyers fees would have added substantially to her costs.

Here is the kicker. For notified consents for tree removal, council staff and local board discussions have indicated that total costs (including hearing costs, specialist reports, submission handling, etc.) could run to tens of thousands of dollars — $50,000+ per tree in some reported cases — and even higher in complex situations.

So maybe the homeowner has taken a smart commercial decision and halved her potential costs. But are we serious that to remove an exotic tree that we have millions of, can cost over $50,000. There is no doubt the technocrats have is by the curlies and are playing us for suckers.

Meanwhile to courts slap real troublemakers and dangerous individuals with fines of a few hundred dollars.
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December 19, 2025 8:04am
- peterwn
  
  Well, people will vote Green councillors who put overzealous protection of trees into district plans. Hopefully Bish’s new planning laws will put a stop to this nonsense.
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:17am
  - pdm
    
    pw the Ministry of regulation should help too.
    
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    December 19, 2025 8:25am
    - Mike
      
      I think you might be overly optimistic about that splendid new government organization’s ability to teach other government organizations how to do their jobs.
      
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      December 19, 2025 8:35am
      - Don Beckett
        
        You mean like the last Labour Govt.?
        
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        December 19, 2025 12:24pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  $3000 to take the tree debris away. WTF? Any number of people would have chainsawed it up for the free firewood.
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:22am
- pdm
  
  Or home detention TT.
  
  There was a case just this week which should have seen jail time – Mcskimming.
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:34am
  - BeaB
    
    Really? Porn on a computer when rape and even causing death can get home detention? I am surprised he even got that and cannot understand how judges weigh these things up. Causing real harm through violence, sexual assault or bad driving should carry harsher sentences than grubby porn habits.
    
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    December 19, 2025 8:38am
    - rouppe
      
      There is real harm done to the children in those “grubby porn” pictures.
      
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      December 19, 2025 9:29am
      - septic skeptic
        
        Yes. Sure, McSkimming is a step away from the actual pedophilia, but stamping this out needs tackling from the demand side as well as the supply side.
        “Grubby porn habits” covers a lot of stuff and doesn’t really recognize that there are kids being abused.
        
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        December 19, 2025 10:36am
    - imalwaysright
      
      A NZ judge is the best defence lawyer one can get.
      I remember a case a few months ago where the Prosecution asked for an 8 year sentence and the Defence asked for 4 years.
      The Judge ended up giving 2 yr 6 months…!
      
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      December 19, 2025 9:35am
      - R
        
        Arithmetic?…..clearly the Judge was a product of ‘Tomorrow’s Schools ‘.
        
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        December 19, 2025 11:45am
    - Ghost
      
      Seriously, you are going to call child porn grubby porn? How about calling it a crime that destroyed children’s lives, especially the ones In the porn who are in pedo rings
      
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      December 19, 2025 9:36am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Interesting perspective.
        LOOKING at Grubby Porn whatever, destroys children’s lives??????
        
        No it doesn’t, the creators of the porn destroy children’s lives.
        
        You of course could argue that looking, creates a demand.
        
        So which comes first chicken or egg?
        Looking? or Creating?
        
        Ponders. Does watching footage of a murder cause the murder??
        
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        December 19, 2025 11:17am
      - Ghost
        
        Are you able to read a comment without twisting what has been said?
        
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        December 19, 2025 11:55am
    - David Garrett
      
      Bea B: “grubby porn habits:??? Are you serious woman? These were images of children being abused, and of bestiality – possibly the two together; I dont know, and don’t really want to.
      
      McSkimming should be inside- with the gang members and not in seg
      
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      December 19, 2025 10:49am
  - Callum
    
    If you seriously believe that case warranted jail time you haven’t been paying attention to the pathetic sentences being regularly handed out these days. People get home detention for rape.
    
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    December 19, 2025 8:40am
    - septic skeptic
      
      And other people also get jail time for child porn. We all know the justice system is warped – but in whose favour.
      
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      December 19, 2025 10:38am
      - pdm
        
        Ron Brierley did I think.
        
        What is the difference between he and McSkimming except Brierley probably owned his own computer or computers.
        
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        December 19, 2025 12:38pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        What is the difference between he and McSkimming
        
        Ron Brierley was convicted and sentenced in an AUSTRALIAN court.
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/126675998/ron-brierley-sentenced-to-14-months-in-jail-over-childabuse-images
        
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        December 19, 2025 2:20pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      Perhaps the issue that’s causing you confusion is the rapes etc also deserve jail time, not reducing dirty dirty McSkimming’s punishment to 9 months home fiddling.
      
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      December 21, 2025 2:25pm
  - Paulus
    
    McSkimming got no more or no less than others would have received from our Judicial system.
    Being a Policeman has made no diffrence despite what most people think otherwise because he was a policeman.
    Sorry, but once again it is the media who make the most noise as most people could not have cared less as it is the least of their current worries.
    He is not a Pedophile either.
    
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    December 19, 2025 9:16am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      1/ “He is not a Pedophile either” you have no way of knowing that is actually true. This case was about objectionable material on his devices
      
      2/ “Being a Policeman has made no diffrence ”
      BUT it should have Paulus, but it should have.
      
      McSkimming was a statutory Deputy Police Commissioner in line to be the actual Police Commissioner.
      The breach of trust inherent in his offending given his position should have offset the numerous discounts applied to the sentence to allow a home detention sentence to be applied.
      The judge explicitly mentions “prior good character and remorse”, according to RNZ, as a factor in discounts applied to the sentencing starting point.
      Good character when abusing a position of trust and a position that directs an organisation that relies on high trust from the public?
      Good character when he searched for child exploitation porn hundreds of time???
      
      Jevon McSkimming has got away with a disgracefully light sentence
      
      When I can final the full sentencing document I will have more to say no doubt
      
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      December 19, 2025 9:41am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Pedophilia : psychiatric and paraphilic disorder characterized by a sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
      
      He seems to qualify.
      
      Zoophilia : Zoophilia is a paraphilia in which a person experiences a sexual fixation on non-human animals. Bestiality instead refers to cross-species sexual activity between humans and non-human animals.
      
      Looks like another couple of boxes ticked.
      
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      December 19, 2025 9:51am
    - igm
      
      All sexual perverts are potential child molesters, that going also for those claiming to be what they are not.
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:00am
      - Ghost
        
        No they aren’t. A pedophiles interest is only children.
        
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        December 19, 2025 12:07pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      I know of a guy who got 5 year sentence for kiddiporn, And then re-offended for another 5 year sentence. McSkimming got the proverbial lashing with a damp bus ticket.
      
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      December 19, 2025 7:20pm
  - peterwn
    
    What would be worse – being lectured by the missus every day while on home detention, or sharing a cell with Bubba.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:01am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Depends what Bubba is in for….
      
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      December 19, 2025 10:32am
    - lifesgood
      
      There’s a fairly good chance there is no longer a missus. I hope he has controls on what he can watch on his home computer. Otherwise it’s a dream come true fore him to sit home all day and watch children being sexually abused. I don’t buy the “not a paedophile” argument. Who’s to say that the desire to watch the appalling stuff he enjoyed wouldn’t escalate into actual action.
      
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      December 19, 2025 1:07pm
  - Dougal10
    
    A question on this topic , if it was Ai porn is it actually porn and able to be prosecuted.
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:05am
    - Ghost
      
      Ai child porn is illegal
      
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      December 19, 2025 12:05pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      A man in the UK many years ago got done for drawing indecent images involving a frog. Now while obviously vile, is drawing something for one’s own sick gratification worth jail time? Or even maybe a crime?
      
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      December 21, 2025 2:28pm
  - Callum
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/southland-teacher-aide-quade-stranges-prison-sentence-for-child-abuse-material-quashed/MKGIE62RUJC6VGKH5WIZ7YBCMI/
    
    Interesting comparison sentence.
    
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    December 19, 2025 5:58pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  And the conviction. Don’t forget the conviction.
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:36am
- imalwaysright
  
  The other side of this is that the Council is prepared to run up tens of thousands of dollars in costs that, subject to judgement, may have had to be paid for by the ratepayer.
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:40am
- Callum
  
  You do realise it wasn’t even her tree? She sent contractors to the neighbours property knowing that the tree was protected.
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:52am
  - pdm
    
    My understanding has always been that once the branches come across boundaries on to your property they are your problem. Especially if they are likely to fall on to your roof or harm someone.
    
    I saw a photo of said tree earlier and there seems to be a lot of it left – it was not butchered.
    
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    December 19, 2025 9:19am
    - Spam
      
      You have a right to trim them back.
      https://communitylaw.org.nz/community-law-manual/chapter-27-neighbourhood-life/trees/
      
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      December 19, 2025 9:30am
      - Callum
        
        Except if it’s protected, which she knew.
        
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        December 19, 2025 9:44am
    - kowtow
      
      “protected” pffft
      
      Hazardous to neighbour’s property and child.
      
      Councils out of control , common sense out the window.
      
      Big trees rightly belong in forests , not near homes in small urban garden environments.
      
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      December 19, 2025 10:33am
- MCōs
  
  There’s no details of the incident. What was the context?
  Was it their own tree, for example?
  People up and down my street regularly prune their trees
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:09am
  - greybeard
    
    Here. Let me help you.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/home-property/360916035/woman-convicted-and-fined-cutting-neighbours-protected-tree
    
    7 1
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    December 19, 2025 9:20am
    - Skippytony
      
      My question is who has liability if a branch of that tree had fallen killing the neighbour’s child?
      
      The owner of the tree?
      
      The council that makes it (practically) impossible to pre-empt the risk?
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:03am
      - kowtow
        
        Tell ya what , the same council would probably came after for failing to trim!
        
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        December 19, 2025 2:58pm
- cmm
  
  This was an oak tree. Oak trees are prone to Sudden Branch Drop (also sometimes called Summer Branch Drop because it is more common in summer). This is bloody dangerous.
  
  In 1997 or so we were renting a house in Christchurch. There was a large eucalyptus tree. Unbeknown to us they are also prone to such branch shedding. We had attached a swing for our 5 year old son. He would spend hours swinging away.
  
  On one day, he had been out swinging for about 40 minutes when my wife called him in for a drink of water. He had been off the swing for 20 seconds when the massive branch fell off – smashing the swing to matchwood. Had he still been on the swing he would have been dead – no iffs and buts.
  
  It is ridiculous that people need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get some horrible little cardigan-wearing clipboard warrior out of the way to make their property safe.
  
  https://arboristnow.com/news/what-is-sudden-branch-drop-syndrome/
  
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  December 19, 2025 3:59pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  And if you are No2 in the police and you fuel the sexual abuse of children (by consuming sexual abuse of children material) you get a few months hanging around your home as a punishment. I do really hope the coalition of the sane have sorting this evil insanity on their (massive) to-do list.
  
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  December 19, 2025 7:13pm
- Beach Haven expat
  
  Or 9 months home detention.
  
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  December 21, 2025 2:20pm
Anthony Melchett

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/murray-olds-australian-correspondent-on-australia-introducing-new-hate-speech-laws-off-the-back-of-the-bondi-beach-shooting/

As is typical for a left wing government, they will take any opportunity to dictate terms to citizens and restrict their freedoms, this time under the guise of “hate speech”

The bondi shootings weren’t caused by hate speech, they were caused by actual hate, from one religion (which you aren’t allowed to say anything bad about) against another. Authorities even knew about the shooter and did nothing.

Yet somehow this will now be used to arrest someone if they hurt people’s feelings on a Facebook comment, just like in the UK.
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December 19, 2025 8:05am
- rouppe
  
  I agree. All the talk in the media is about hate speech, and protecting the Jewish community.
  
  Absolutely nothing on actions to curtail the activities of the main source of the violence. It defies belief that there are no Imam that knew that these guys were being radicalised.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:34am
  - mogg
    
    Mosque hate speech is common knowledge in Aus,
    Andrew Bolt on Sky News played several videos of preachers giving sermons, it’s on YouTube but I can’t find it again. What they are saying is unbelievably, it goes beyond antisemitism bordering on encouraging acts of violence. Much of this takes place in Western Sydney which is a big part of the Albanese electorate,
    so he doesn’t want to offend them. He still thinks that the answer is more gun control laws.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:46am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “What they are saying is unbelievably…”
      
      Those who are awake to this purely evil stuff have known about it for decades. Our politicians all the while still have their heads up their jacksies it would seem.
      
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      December 19, 2025 7:17pm
- imalwaysright
  
  The Left:
  Collective Guilt
  Collective Blame
  Collective Punishment
  
  11 1
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  December 19, 2025 9:38am
nigel2010

has anyone else noticed the lack of Christmas decorations in the shops this year. i had to go into Sylvia Park last night and only noticed a couple of shops even with decorations. i commend Farmers and Peter Alexander as they made an effort but the rest couldn’t be bothered or are the corporate offices to afraid to hurt someone’s feelings
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December 19, 2025 8:07am
- Ghost
  
  Shops are decorated here. Actually the business in town got together to get a new Christmas tree after the other was destroyed by arson, community is dropping off decorations for if.
  
  8 1
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  December 19, 2025 9:19am
- Prince
  
  Nothing in Wellington. No City tree, very feww decorations in shops, nothing funded by council.
  
  Just returned from Sydney and despite the atrocity, there’s a real buzz on the streets, Martin Place tree. All the shops have lights, decoations etc.
  
  Little has his work cut out battling gthe Council grinches and woke bludgers.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:30am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    WCC:
    
    Diwali – tick
    Eid – yep
    Matariki – hell yeah
    Christmas – deafening silence
    
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    December 19, 2025 12:52pm
    - kowtow
      
      Hannukah ?
      
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      December 19, 2025 2:57pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    In Melbourne there is the sterile corporate anality (a new word perhaps) of putting sterile red bows around trees. Usually in the areas dominated by “luxury” super-sized a-hole vehicles. Is this a thing in Auckland also?
    
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    December 19, 2025 7:44pm
Quail

The RMA at work.
Government have doubled the fines just recently.
Yes , this Coalition Government.
An utter disgrace!
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December 19, 2025 8:10am
- Quail
  
  FYI..The above Quail comment was in support of Tom Toddy’s post re fines for tree pruning.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:47am
- Local Miller
  
  Citation and details needed please.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:59am
BeaB

Can I think of anything worse than Corin Dann and Ingrid Hipkiss on Morning Report? I could but nothing anywhere near as nightmarish as John Campbell and Ingrid Hipkiss.
What on earth are they thinking? All that gushing, hysteria and bias! And that’s just Campbell.
Mike Hosking will have a very happy Xmas.
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December 19, 2025 8:10am
- Ian Boag
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Obviously you are not an MR fan and presumably don’t listen to it. How else would you know how “bad” it is?
  
  Fair enough. I feel the same way about Hosking – I only ever hear him by accident. Free country and all that.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:40am
  - RoboRob
    
    The ratings of Morning report vs Hoskings show would put you in the minority.
    
    27 1
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    December 19, 2025 9:47am
  - Callum
    
    We are being forced to pay for Campbell is the big difference.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:02am
  - Mike
    
    It’s a snowflake thing: complain about the content of media at the same time as pretending not to watch, listen to, or read it.
    
    2 31
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    December 19, 2025 10:05am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Mike omitting the critical factor. Taxpayer funding.
      Gave you another downtick champ.
      
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      December 19, 2025 7:20pm
  - amospicton
    
    Key difference Ian is that Newstalk is a private business that stands or falls on its commercial merits. RNZ is paid for by you and me and simply must therefore be impartial. It’s not and appointing Campbell makes it worse. Considerably worse.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:25am
  - pdm
    
    IB I have seen enough of Campbell on TV over the years to know he is a sickening, self opinionated, biased lefty.
    
    His spots will not have changed – full stop.
    
    32 1
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    December 19, 2025 10:36am
    - kowtow
      
      pdm
      
      I reckon some of the best ‘political tv’ of recent years is Seymour v Campbell when David brought his own camera .
      
      Campbell was so pissed off at being “hoist on his own petard ‘ as it were .
      
      They don’t like it up em.
      
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      December 19, 2025 12:31pm
  - Swifty
    
    Ian, once again, wilfully overlooks the difference accountabilities and responsibilities between a private media operation and a taxpayer-funded state broadcaster.
    
    Wake up Ian.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:51am
  - R
    
    Hosking morn report….An opportunity to broaden you knowledge base Ian
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:53am
    - kowtow
      
      Better off with Plunkett .
      
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      December 19, 2025 12:32pm
- RoboRob
  
  I just cant understand this decision. Campbell is a hard wringing leftist with a tendancy for faux sympathy and outrage. Is that what a morning news show needs? *
  
  But the real strange one is that his current role is ‘ TVNZ’s Chief Correspondent’, making sure we have a hard left slant on TVNZ news. Are TVNZ and RNZ so intwined that staff just move between the two?
  
  I note that TVNZ has just ‘stolen’ hard lefty Tova Obrian from Stuff for its breakfast show. Do RNZ and TVNZ really thing that the solution to falling ratings is to replace left wing preseners with harder left wing presenters?
  
  Contrast RNZ with NewsTalk ZB. The more moderate and varied presenters selected on ZB is clearly a ratings winner so why would RNZ want to make their line up even less diverse.
  
  * I dont listen to morning and report and will likely never do so. I have no idea how bad Hipkiss is.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:42am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Michael Laws on the Platform noticed that Campbell doesn’t seem to last long wherever he goes these days. He surmised that his co-workers quickly tire of him and he gets shuffled somewhere else.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:39am
  - BeaB
    
    The same tired old faces keep being recycled. I’ve always had Morning Report on out of lifetime habit but regularly yell at Alexa to switch it off. Campbell in the mornings is too sick-making to even contemplate. Giving ‘a voice to the powerless’! Spare us.
    But I do remember with pleasure John Key running rings round him and David Seymour causing him huge irritation by recording the whole interview to prevent the usual misleading edits.
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:27am
  - R
    
    RNZ are priming their ‘indoctrination team’ for the 2026 election.
    
    16 1
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    December 19, 2025 11:55am
    - kowtow
      
      Priming?
      
      They’ve been broadsiding since they lost the last general election .
      
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      December 19, 2025 12:34pm
- Burtland
  
  The Herald reports
  
  “Amid robust board feedback, RNZ says new Morning Report host John Campbell is committed to impartial journalism”
  
  😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
  
  well thats a ‘pants-on-fire’ statement
  
  campbell adds…. “To be able to do that, every weekday morning, with neither fear nor favour, is such an exciting opportunity.”
  
  seems RNZ is to continue as a clown show – still no action from Goldsmith
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:57am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “John Campbell is committed to impartial journalism.”
    
    Isn’t that the only kind?
    Otherwise its called activism.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:41am
    - Philview
      
      I recall John on Election night 2023 and he didn’t seem very impartial that night.
      
      https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/10/28/john-campbell-what-exactly-has-the-tide-brought-in/
      
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      December 19, 2025 1:20pm
  - septic skeptic
    
    John Campbell does truly believe in holding the government to account. For just as long as the right is in government. When the left wins, he truly believes in proselytizing on their behalf.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:46am
  - Dougal10
    
    I am hoping Goldsmith is letting them hang themselves with the Campbell and Tova appointments
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:11am
  - RoboRob
    
    Dont expect action from Goldsmith, he hasn’t even updated his own gang patch law to stop judges returning the patches. If he isn’t motivated to do that, what chance of him making any changes to RNZ and TVNZ.
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:37am
    - Ghost
      
      He will be waiting to see how the appeals go.
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:43am
      - RoboRob
        
        Are there appeals? I hadn’t heard that.
        
        That said, there is absolultely nothing stopping him ammending the law to add ‘will be confiscated… and destroyed’. Those two words would save appeals and untold hours of work.
        
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        December 19, 2025 1:58pm
      - Ghost
        
        Best to let the appeal go ahead to see how the court interpret the law with the appeals, then if needed make the changes
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/576699/police-appeal-judges-decisions-to-return-confiscated-gang-patches
        
        1 0
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        December 19, 2025 2:14pm
    - pdm
      
      Goldsmith – leading ditherer in the Cabinet.
      
      8 3
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      December 19, 2025 12:42pm
      - RoboRob
        
        As usual, I will see your Goldsmith and raise you a Simon Watts.
        
        6 0
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        December 19, 2025 1:58pm
  - MCōs
    
    His counterpart Mister Mike could hardly be accused of impartiality and it’s a competition for the ratings.
    
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    December 19, 2025 1:49pm
    - Callum
      
      I won’t be listening to either, the difference is one will still be picking my pocket.
      
      3 0
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      December 19, 2025 1:57pm
    - RoboRob
      
      There is no competition. Mike has smashed all other shows for years (the last decade?).
      
      Yes he is not impartial but he is also quite happy to call out his own team and does so frequently. Thats the difference. Same as HDPA, who is often accused here of National bashing.
      
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      December 19, 2025 2:00pm
- Prince
  
  The panel discussed it over a few chardies at a Kelburn lunch and it was unanimous.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:34am
  - R
    
    Decision made in a ‘chardy fog’!
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:57am
- R
  
  Mike Hosking will….very happy as, and an even greater radio media following next year.
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:50am
  - Graeme Hall
    
    Next year, when he finally turns up, Hosking will personally read out so many ZB ads his views on politics will all but disappear. Ten minutes every half-hour disappears now with so-called news (2mins), sports (2mins) & adverts, then there are at least 3 more ad breaks in the 20mins left. ZB is now taking the mickey because there is no serious competition. This year I was reduced to switching between ZB and RNZ trying to find something to listen besides Manglish and ads. Thank goodness for podcasts.
    
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    December 19, 2025 2:50pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      What really annoys me about ZB (aside from the f$%ing ads) is the bizarre shitty background music overlaying the commentary). I podcast the show and skip the ads and the stupid crappy music injections.
      
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      December 19, 2025 7:52pm
rouppe

This has for to be a horror scenario for New Zealand.

Former Te Pāti Māori lawyer Tania Waikato to stand for Green Party in 2026 general election

TPM hate and anger combined with Green Marxism and authoritarianism.
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December 19, 2025 8:10am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I can’t quite figure out whether this signals a vote of NO CONFIDENCE in TPM by articulate, educated Maori or is an attempt to load the Green Party with TPM adherents.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:37am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Perhaps it is an attempt to raise the collective IQ of the Maori Party.
    
    13 2
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    December 19, 2025 9:55am
- pdm
  
  rouppe I bet `The Mex’ hates it.
  
  There goes his chance to be Co Leader with Chloe when Davidson steps down from Politics.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:40am
- R
  
  What economic mishaps could possibly happen to NZ . The mind boggles at the thought.
  
  6 0
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  December 19, 2025 11:59am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Imagine if the Maori Economy collapsed – the country would be worse off than Venezuela. //s.
    
    3 1
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    December 19, 2025 2:13pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Imagine if the Maori Economy collapsed
      
      I’m sure some mates from the PRC will be along to “prop up” failing businesses for a 送礼 (sòng lǐ).
      
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      December 19, 2025 2:29pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Tania Waikato? Surely not Tory Whanau by another name?
  
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  December 19, 2025 8:26pm
Sparrow

May I ask where this madness took place?
Recently cut down what was left of a very old olive tree. Presumably Mount Eden beckons for me.
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December 19, 2025 8:20am
G152

Speaking of greens I noticed the lack of tea towels in their getup the last day of Parliament
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December 19, 2025 8:24am
- Ghost
  
  They’ve been banned for a while now, business attire only
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:16am
  - pdm
    
    Still no ties though.
    
    Wear a suit jacket and trousers – wear a tie!!!
    
    9 2
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    December 19, 2025 9:20am
    - R
      
      Many of the present opposition display an astounding level of sartorial ignorance!
      
      4 0
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      December 19, 2025 12:01pm
  - rouppe
    
    Isn’t the ban only in the public gallery?
    
    I haven’t seen anything about MP’s dress code, Waititi still wears a hat indoors and March has still got his bolo on.
    
    12 1
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    December 19, 2025 9:47am
    - Ghost
      
      After the incident with Oriini, Brownlee sent a letter to all parties that he would be stricter on the rules in the house, including the current rules on dress code. Tea towels, protest crap got banned
      
      11 0
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      December 19, 2025 10:02am
  - RoboRob
    
    Does business attire now include cowboy hats?
    
    Gerry should retire, he is well past his useby date. I say that as someone who voted for him in the same year he was thrashed (in a National stronghold) by a Labour MP that was a hard Greenie straight of the boat from the UK.
    
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    December 19, 2025 9:49am
    - Ghost
      
      Hats are nothing new in the chamber. Dover Samuels used to wear his. Ruth Richardson wore a blue hat once. Historically hats were part of the dress code
      
      6 4
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      December 19, 2025 10:00am
      - kowtow
        
        Women yes , men no.
        
        11 1
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        December 19, 2025 10:29am
      - pdm
        
        It has always been protocol for ladies to wear hats indoors.
        
        Never for men though when I was growing up and not now either.
        
        17 1
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        December 19, 2025 10:43am
      - MCōs
        
        In the Australian Senate the loathsome Pauline Hanson has an unhealthy predilection of burkas
        
        1 9
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        December 19, 2025 1:40pm
      - Ghost
        
        And yet hats were permitted for men in the nz debating chamber. There was even a standing order for mp’s to speak on points of order while seated and wearing a hat
        
        1 0
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        December 19, 2025 1:45pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        To be fair Dover needed to keep a receptacle close at hand due to his bladder condition.
        
        2 0
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        December 19, 2025 2:53pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Dover wasn’t a dick though.
        
        1 0
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        December 19, 2025 7:27pm
      - Ghost
        
        We don’t have special rules for those who are dicks and those that aren’t.
        
        There is no rule prohibiting a member wearing a hat. To wear a hat with
        advertising or a message written on it would not be acceptable. But in the
        normal wearing of attire a member is perfectly entitled to wear a hat.
        
        https://www3.parliament.nz/media/3622/speakers-rulings-1867-to-2014-inclusive.pdf
        
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        December 19, 2025 7:41pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @NZer in exile
        
        some would think he was much worse than a dick…
        
        https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/07/nz-j10.html
        
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        December 19, 2025 8:39pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Maggy Wassilieff I read your link to that year 2000 “World Socialist Website” article.
      
      It looks inconclusive as to whether or not the accusations were true.
      
      I don’t believe he behaved like a dick in parliament, unlike a certain pack of latter day ass clowns.
      
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      December 21, 2025 10:29pm
Yabster

so a carload of “men” mainly dressed in black rammed by police in Sydney- weapons recovered -known to the cops. It is hard not to speculate- but lets wait and see re the details/motives.
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December 19, 2025 8:38am
- NZGUY
  
  It sounds gang related to me (they have had a few gang related shootings over the last few months)
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:20am
  - kowtow
    
    You do know that many aspects of the organised crime scene in Oz is heavily dominated by people of Middle Eastern “heritage” .
    
    Same in Germany , UK, Holland ,France and the once “monocultural” Scandanavian countries.
    
    I think university , ngo , and other leftists like to call it the diversity dividend and the media exhort us to embrace the obvious enrichment it brings to the host nations.
    
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    December 19, 2025 9:32am
    - Ra Henare
      
      what about the Slavs and the Asians? Or are you being picky about middle eastern heritage
      
      largest Groups.
      Comancheros, Rebels, Hells Angels, Bandidos Cant see middle eastern dominance there
      
      Italian Marfia
      Albanian marfia
      Triads
      
      I will give you
      Alameddine (Lebanese-origin surname and family). Noter Lebanon is 46% christian.
      
      The Hamzy clan/Brothers 4 Life
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:37am
    - R
      
      The media embrace the column inches of coverage for their favoured AGENDA
      
      2 1
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      December 19, 2025 12:03pm
- Southern Raider
  
  The real concerning thing is how many others are still out there. I would suggest a large amount.
  
  With compounding Muslim populations in Australias over last 2 decades, radical imans and street preachers going unchecked and the Govt inaction on years of hate crimes against the Jewish community I fear this is just the start.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:25am
JJ56

One of the more curious mergers of the current US silly season:

“Tump Media & Technology Group to Merge with TAE Technologies, a Premier Fusion Power Company, in All-Stock Transaction Valued at More Than $6 Billion.

“Combined company expects to site and commence construction of the first utility-scale fusion power plant in 2026

“Fusion power to blaze path toward America’s A.I. dominance and energy security

“Conference call scheduled for 9 a.m. ET, December 18, 2025”
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December 19, 2025 8:53am
- Mike
  
  Something for the true believers to invest in before the stock gets dumped?
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:09am
Swifty

Bondi hero denounced as traitor by Palestinians, apparently:

https://x.com/drewpavlou/status/2001589884210069779?s=46

These are the people that Phil Twyford and others in Labour would import en masse when next in government.

Suicidal empathy.
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December 19, 2025 8:55am
- kowtow
  
  Ah Phil Twyford.
  
  The guy who was ushered off an Auckland stage and jeered by a Hamas loving crowd , had to have a police posse to get him out of there and who was followed on the stage by the extremist Swarbrick literally screaching “river to sea” surrounded by her admiring Green caucus .
  
  This was all within a month , roughly, of the genocidal Oct 7 attack on Israel.
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:26am
  - Mike
    
    Isn’t ‘river to the sea’ originally a Likud slogan?
    
    4 20
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    December 19, 2025 10:10am
    - mandk
      
      Originally, it was “From the river to the river”, and it was God’s promise to the Jews.
      
      “In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (King James Bible, Genesis 15:18).
      
      Israel should re-take the land. The world would be better for it.
      
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      December 19, 2025 10:37am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Probably not…..
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_river_to_the_sea
      
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      December 19, 2025 11:52am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Mike: “Isn’t ‘river to the sea’ originally a Likud slogan.”
      
      Another “look over there” distraction attempt. The phrase is obviously used these days by murderous loons of a certain cult (and their dangerously thick as pigshit western useful idiot supporters).
      
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      December 19, 2025 7:31pm
- MCōs
  
  Have a look for yourself
  https://fb.watch/E49IzU4V_b/?
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:09am
- Jethrod
  
  Ahmed should be top of the list for the Order of Australia.
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:13am
  - kowtow
    
    Others also attacked the gunmen .
    An elderly man with a brick .The Cops .Many others sacrificed their lives protecting the vulnerable on the beach.
    There were many heros that day ,including Ahmad.
    
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    December 19, 2025 10:24am
Vidar

US inflation has fallen to 2.7%, while New Zealand remains at 3%.

That outcome doesn’t quite match the claims about tariffs driving US inflation.
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December 19, 2025 8:56am
- RoboRob
  
  They dont have the massive drag factor of expensive energy and outrageous council rates increases.
  
  Trumps priority on day one was to cut energy prices. He was successful and that has pushed inflation down despite tarrifs. If only Simon Watts hadn’t spent the last two years sitting on his hands (re energy). He has also done nothing to deal with council rates, no talking about introducing a cap in two years doesn’t count. Thats 4-5 years before actually doing something, when he could have immediately looked a narrowing the areas the councils could spend on (for example).
  
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  December 19, 2025 9:53am
  - MCōs
    
    The vague equivalent of rates in the USA is property tax, which is less than half the revenue of local bodies. As here it’s based on property valuations, but in some states they only increase at a specified rate until the property changes ownership.
    https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-state-and-local-property-taxes-work
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:43am
  - imalwaysright
    
    A loophole in the Council rates cap proposal is the Council putting up the prices of their other income sources.
    For example, our local tip fees are already $320 per tonne. That’s extortion.
    
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    December 19, 2025 12:06pm
- Quail
  
  Posted late yesterday was reference to the “ Big Mac” method of measuring inflation and purchasing power.
  About 10 years ago a cheeseburger could be purchased for $2 NZD. Last night the cost was$5 NZD .
  
  The two and a half times increase in price reflects rampant inflation and commensurate loss of purchasing power of the NZD.in that 10 year period!
  Governments like inflation as it reduces their debt and gives an illusion of ongoing prosperity.
  In fact as the great economist Friedman said.
  .” inflation is a tax”
  According to Big Mac, inflation over the last ten years has been enormous!
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:16am
  - Jack5
    
    Quail’s loss of purchasing power of the NZD.in that 10 year period…
    
    As an economy based on agriculture exports, we depend on world food markets and their prices. Now world milk supply seems to be soaring. Mmm.
    
    We can diversify.
    
    If only Ardern hadn’t all but killed oil exploration.
    
    If only we had had, what is now emerging quickly, an economy that encourages harnessing our extensive mineral resources, including billions of tons of coal, which we import!
    
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    December 19, 2025 5:55pm
slightlyrighty

If you watched Trump’s National address (Rant) last night, and your first reaction wasn’t “WTF!”, then I urge you to take a moment, and ask yourself what you would have said had Biden given such an address.

This, coupled with the unhinged comments about Rob Reiner, indicate a elderly man in mental decline, and anyone who has seen it in their own relatives will recognise it here.

Any sensible person whose politics lie Right of Centre should be concerned at how much damage this is doing to the GOP.
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December 19, 2025 9:01am
- rockape
  
  I think we will see the damage or not in the midterms. The polling for the Dems isn’t exactly looking good right now. Trump only has to survive those and he is assured of a full second term, then he hands over so what would he be worried about after 2026?
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:26am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    People don’t so much vote governments in as vote governments out.
    
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    December 19, 2025 12:05pm
  - lifesgood
    
    There’s a fairly good chance there is no longer a missus. I hope he has controls on what he can watch on his home computer. Otherwise it’s a dream come true fore him to sit home all day and watch children being sexually abused. I don’t buy the “not a paedophile” argument. Who’s to say that the desire to watch the appalling stuff he enjoyed wouldn’t escalate into actual action.
    
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    December 19, 2025 1:20pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Not a Trump comment, I assume
      
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      December 19, 2025 8:30pm
- rockape
  
  I think we will see the damage or not in the midterms. The polling for the Dems isn’t exactly looking good right now.
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:29am
- virtualmark
  
  I strongly suspect Trump won’t still be the President by the midterms. Not that he’ll resign, but I suspect his physical or his mental health will end up making things untenable.
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:39am
  - RoboRob
    
    zzzzz
    
    Did you say the same when Biden was president? Trump, no matter what you might think of his personality, is a looooong way from being Biden levels of impaired.
    
    5 3
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    December 19, 2025 2:04pm
    - RoboRob
      
      Do the down tickers really think that Trump is as mentally impaired as Biden was? [Mod – just debate the topic]
      
      3 1
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      December 19, 2025 3:49pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Disagree.
      
      Biden got old more than sick. He just ran out of energy to do the job. In a better world he could have resigned after his mid-terms. For sure the idea of him chasing a second term was crazy.
      
      But he’s still got his marbles. You can see that in recent video of him from just the last week or so.
      
      Trump has dementia. His behaviour strongly strongly suggests it. His father died of it. Doctors don’t put you through the Montreal Cognitive Assessment unless they think you have dementia. I won’t be surprised if we learn (after he’s gone) that he’s on Leqembi. It’s an experimental Alzheimers drug that is administered through the back of the hand once every 3-4 weeks (lines up with his bruising), makes you sleepy (nodding off in meetings) and requires regular MRIs (to check for brain swelling).
      
      And he’s all but certainly had at least two strokes. One in mid-2024 when he disappeared from view for a week, and another back in August when he also disappeared from view for a week and has since had a droopy face. If you have a stroke at his age then it’s pretty typical to keep having them and to one day have a big one that really lays you out.
      
      But time will tell.
      
      3 4
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      December 19, 2025 4:59pm
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        Oh FFS, let’s all run with the Cognitive Test meme again shall we.
        
        It was all BS the first time around and isn’t going to wash this time.
        
        2 0
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        December 19, 2025 10:29pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Except the doctors keep putting him through it …
        
        Which is what you do if you’re tracking the progress of dementia.
        
        0 0
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        December 20, 2025 8:58am
Swifty

Animal sacrifices back on the menu in the States:

https://x.com/legacy411/status/2001451535859941564?s=46

Looking forward to it coming back in NZ to be honest, I’d willingly sacrifice a few goats and roosters if there’s any chance it would stop Labour and the Greens getting back in.
9 2
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December 19, 2025 9:02am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mwH3OTBXk
Britain’s Real Fear Isn’t Russia—It’s This.
In this episode, Susan Kokinda reveals the real reasons behind the British Empire’s aggressive stance toward Russia. It’s not about missiles or democracy, but a critical financial report from Washington that threatens the City of London’s economic control. The 2025 FSOC report prioritizes people over financial parasites, marking a fundamental shift in U.S. economic strategy under Trump’s administration. We also discuss the broader implications on U.S.-British relations, the National Security Strategy, and the strategic economic battles involving food security, big pharma, housing stability, and narco-trafficking. Tune in to uncover the economic war underpinning global tensions and subscribe to Promethean Action for more insights. [I’m pretty sure this outfit isn’t a branch office of Conspiracies R Us.]
3 2
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December 19, 2025 9:36am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd68s8N46wc
Celebrations erupts across Chile as conservative and pro-Trump candidate wins election.
Conservative candidate José Antonio Kast has been elected as Chile’s next president following a landslide victory.

The 59-year-old defeated Communist Party politician and former Labour Minister Jeannette Jara with nearly 58 per cent of the vote.

Shortly after the polls closed in the election, Jara conceded defeat on stage while speaking to her supporters.

Kast’s election victory follows a growing trend of conservative election victories across South America, following wins in Argentina and Ecuador.

The 59-year-old’s victory was his first after running for election three times; his latest attempt in 2021 saw him lose to outgoing President Gabriel Boric. [Make chopper rides great again.]
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December 19, 2025 9:37am
Rusty

President Trumps supposed unhinged rant on Rob Reiners death pales in comparison to the deranged/far-lefts cheerful reactions to the two attempted assassination made on him and the murders of a Medicare CEO and Charlie Kirk.
21 5
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December 19, 2025 9:46am
- Lance
  
  I don’t think it’s a matter of one side verses the other.
  Anybody who welcomes the death of a political opponent is fucked in the head
  
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  December 19, 2025 10:33am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Any unnecessary death is tragic.
    
    I don’t think Trump was rejoicing, so much as uncontrollably blurting out the Karmic irony of Reiner continually and malevolently stirring hatred and bitterness, and being killed by someone who was continually drowning in that quagmire of hatred and bitterness.
    
    If you die by being hit with poison darts that you were continually firing at others, like a human Wile E Coyote, that is Karmic. Tragic, but Karmic.
    
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    December 19, 2025 11:11am
- virtualmark
  
  Genuine question: Can you point to any senior elected Democrat (let’s say Mayor, State Senator, Governor, Congressperson or Federal Senator) who posted something inappropriate about either Charlie Kirk or Mangioni killing Brian Thompson?
  
  Trump is the highest elected official in the USA. Having the President speak like he has about Rob Reiner’s death is very different to having some nobody activist tweet-addict doing it.
  
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  December 19, 2025 11:42am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    What Trump said was wrong.
    It was also entirely personal. Reiner hated Trump and actively did everything he could to destroy Trump. Trump’s hatred of him was actually entirely rational. That is very different.
    
    Still wrong though.
    
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    December 19, 2025 12:06pm
    - virtualmark
      
      And yet the world needs the President of the United States to be a mature grown-up who can control his emotions.
      
      3 1
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      December 19, 2025 5:09pm
Mod88

Interesting contrasts this morning, Good Oil has a Document Dump, re the Jackson/MUMA Affair with the Tukaki brothers up to their ears in the shenanigans while The Herald/Audrey Young has a “paywalled” puff piece. Who to believe, personally my money is on Matt McCarten and the Jackson side is hoping it goes under the rug over Christmas.
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December 19, 2025 10:58am
- RoboRob
  
  Wait…. Are you saying a MS media source is actually covering this! Lucky its paywalled so that nobody can read it.
  
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  December 19, 2025 2:06pm
mogg

Andrew Bolt on Sky News showing us just what is happening in the Albanese electorate’s mosques.the Jew hate sermons are in the last three mins.
This level of depravity is allowed in exchange for a few thousand hardline Islamist votes.
https://youtu.be/56ubNm2W8Yg
10 2
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December 19, 2025 11:10am
- pb
  
  Aussies a bit weak. Nothing yet about deporting the diversity. It will come.
  
  5 0
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  December 19, 2025 12:10pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    501 their arses!
    
    1 0
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    December 19, 2025 8:32pm
MCōs

I see the Kennedy Center has been renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center.
At least none of Wellington’s many recent mayors have tacked their name to the Michael Fowler Centre.
5 3
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December 19, 2025 12:00pm
- Ghost
  
  God no. That’s just wrong. This was a memorial for kennedy
  
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  December 19, 2025 12:26pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    I mean, if you add Clinton you’ve hit the trifecta of truly horrendous womanisers.
    I’ll never understand why Kennedy gets a free pass on how much of a truly awful person he was.
    
    5 3
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    December 19, 2025 1:12pm
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      It’s different when a lefty does it.
      
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      December 19, 2025 10:31pm
  - MCōs
    
    Ghost-Caroline Bay has a certain ring
    
    2 2
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    December 19, 2025 1:26pm
- virtualmark
  
  Sort of.
  
  The John F. Kennedy Center name is set in Federal law. See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-303/pdf/COMPS-303.pdf
  
  Sure, you can change the signage to read whatever you want. And you can refer to it by whatever name you want. But if you want to officially change the name you need an Act of Congress. And without that (and I assume they will never get that) then the name will surely revert back as soon as Trump is no longer President.
  
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  December 19, 2025 5:12pm
nigel2010

just go see what Ilhan Omar had to say and you will see just how evil and perverse the left really are, what Trump said about Rainers death while clumsy and ill advised was very tame
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December 19, 2025 12:22pm
Ghost

Paywalled, but the first msm, perhaps tova is next…

Former close friends and political allies, Willie Jackson and Matt McCarten, have spectacularly fallen out, amid allegations of bullying – and Jackson trespassing McCarten from Waatea Marae. Underpinning it all is an epic story of loyalty and betrayal, writes senior political correspondent Audrey Young.

Article
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December 19, 2025 12:56pm
- Ghost
  
  Paywalled link above now has a video reply from Willie, video is free to watch
  
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  December 19, 2025 1:50pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Nice of the herald to hide (from most people) the actual story but to make Willies side free.
    
    If we are to believe Willie in the article Audrey Young discredits McCarton. Also no MSM are covering this becuase its all lies, nothing to do with laywes letters. Who to believe?
    
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    December 19, 2025 2:10pm
    - Blog-aholic
      
      If I had to choose who to believe, it would be McCarten, he has plenty to lose in defamation if he is wrong……..
      
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      December 19, 2025 2:22pm
    - Ghost
      
      Well the one thing the article does mention is this, so I’m going to say Willie is safe
      
      McCarten is meanwhile making serious allegations about MUMA, including claims of widespread bullying by the CEO. And he has tried to draw Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Parliament Speaker Gerry Brownlee and the privileges committee into the dispute.
      
      In fact, he has appealed to any political party leader or deputy who will support his claims that Jackson has improperly intervened in an employment dispute involving his wife and that he has betrayed his union principles.
      
      So far, that approach has been unsuccessful. Hipkins has ignored McCarten. Brownlee has said it is not a matter for the privileges committee. And other party leaders have so far taken a hands-off approach to McCarten’s claims. Jackson himself has not commented publicly either.
      
      Audrey Gives both sides of the story.
      
      1 2
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      December 19, 2025 2:28pm
      - DimChappie
        
        To it reads like a smear job on Matt McCarten. All he says is a vile accusation, while poor Willie and wifie saved his life and look how he repays them.
        
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        December 19, 2025 4:16pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Willie and wifie saved his life
        
        I”m pretty sure Auckland Hospital surgeons and Cancer specialists (Western Medicine) saved Matt McCarten’s life.
        
        https://waateanews.com/2024/06/12/matt-mccarten-mens-health-week-battling-cancer-with-a-plan/
        
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        December 19, 2025 8:29pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360916933/absolute-nightmare-sensitive-details-accidentally-shared-police
What the hell is going on with the NZ Police Force ?
Every week we get a report of some new disaster or incompetence regarding what should be a foolproof and corruption-proof organisation.
Is this some sort of a plot ? A deliberate and orchestrated attempt to erode the public’s perception of, and faith in, one of our most important institutions ?
3 2
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December 19, 2025 4:43pm
- Ghost
  
  A problem with the software they use, it’s been fixed.
  
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  December 19, 2025 4:53pm
Swifty

Jail – a step in the right direction.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/582329/vincent-ding-peng-hii-set-to-spend-two-years-in-prison-for-running-illegal-immigration-scheme

But I would have given him five myself.
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December 19, 2025 5:44pm
Ghost

The High Court has ruled Human Rights Commissioner Stephen Rainbow and Race Relations Commissioner Melissa Derby were appointed unlawfully by the Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith.

Goldsmith says he’s taking advice on the judgment and considering “next steps”, including a possible appeal.

Article

It needs to be appealed
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December 19, 2025 5:47pm
- Jack5
  
  The un-elected judiciary over-ruling elected Parliament.
  
  4 1
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  December 19, 2025 7:10pm
Swifty

The terrible Albanese confirms he’s going to follow terrible Ardern’s terrible example and launch a terrible firearm confiscation programme – when the core problem is one of Islamic extremism and violence.

https://x.com/albomp/status/2001808643273224242?s=46

Avoiding the problem and punishing the innocent – the lefty way since forever.
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December 19, 2025 5:53pm
Swifty

Our future under Labour and the Greens:

https://x.com/lyndonx/status/2001550347404251269?s=46

Inheritance tax nightmares in the UK.

The state, our slave, has now become our master.
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December 19, 2025 7:05pm
Swifty

Soon we’re not going to have a bloody clue who were talking with – if we’re not already there:

https://x.com/wevolverapp/status/2001548782542975114?s=46

Deep Live Cam.
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December 19, 2025 8:00pm

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