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Your NZ 
Gerrit
/ 17th July 2020This will have the lefties in a spin.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122149832/government-sells-30m-worth-of-state-houses-after-labour-promised-to-stop-sales
Another Twyford broken promise
“The statement said the Labour-led Government had “cancelled the sell-off of state houses, fulfilling another of its first 100 day promises”.”
And before the woke Labour party folks hit the computers at 9 o’clock to say it is replacement policy but under National is was worse. Here is the comparison.
“Kāinga Ora figures show that, under National, in the 2014 financial year it sold 598 homes and built 398, in the 2015 financial year it sold 492 and built 724 and in the 2016 financial year it sold 308 and built 409.”
Surprising revelation from the usually pro Labour Stuff news outlet.
Especially the kick in the guts regarding KiwiBuild
” However, the current Government failed to deliver on original targets set out in its KiwiBuild housing programme, which was meant to build 100,000 houses over 10 years.
To date fewer than 400 have been completed.”.
David
/ 17th July 2020State houses that are the wrong size in the wrong place, some worth eye watering amounts, should be sold and it shouldnt be an issue. Trouble is Labour did the rank hypocrites.
Alarming is the rise in the waiting list of the most vulnerable on the housing waiting list going from 4000 to 12000 under Labour. Its an absolute disgrace the way they are running housing NZ or whatever name they have given it now.
Kitty Catkin
/ 17th July 2020I see little sense in keeping a state house that’s worth a million when it could be sold and the money used to build a number of prefab houses of permanent materials and good design.
There was a televison programme about a scheme in the UK where people bought houses that were about to be pulled down, paying a token amount for legal purposes. They then had 12 months to make them habitable. These were council houses, but I see what appear to be state houses here standing empty and wonder why this couldn’t happen here.
lurcher1948
/ 17th July 2020The National party in a brilliant move back to the past, is going to suspend contributions to the super fund.Mr Goldsmith with his eyes fully committed to look at the National party failures from the past is determined to repeat them.Vote National,same old same old,new leader.
David
/ 17th July 2020Probably a smart move, markets are looking pretty topped out and increasingly disconnected from the reality. If Biden beats Trump you can knock 20% off the US market alone.
NOEL
/ 17th July 2020Tis this one
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/106087/paul-goldsmith-wants-cut-nice-have-spending-including-nz-super-fund-contributions-saying
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020We have a building industry designed by and for paper pushers not builders. It produces paper not houses.
Blazer
/ 17th July 2020One day,some day they’ll let you build shanties on your block to maximise your …profits Al.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020One day maybe they’ll let people decide for themselves what they want to build and live in. Or the Left will continue to say we’ll control your property and your lives and you will just shut up and live on our handouts.
Blazer
/ 17th July 2020Your hands been out for months
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Rubbish.
Kitty Catkin
/ 17th July 2020Worse than rubbish.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Lead opinion column by Verity Johnson in Stuff today hits new levels of stupid. The Left will need another billionaire to fund stuff like that.
David
/ 17th July 2020I read her piece and I have offspring that age and have never heard any of them or their friends say anything about trans, race or all those other thing that are important to Verity. I thinks she speaks for 1% of 10% of the population and the things she claims are important arent really that important in a voting booth.
There are a lot who will vote Ardern just because, you ask them why and they repeat something like the planet or the mosque but I have learned not to ask a further question because they have no answer and no one has ever questioned them so they get annoyed. The level of excitement for her is hugely down on last time, the turnout is going to be pretty low in that cohort.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Stuff will soon go belly up if it churns out crap like that. Must have useless editors to let such drivel through unchallenged. Windy Wellington’s wet woke won’t be enough to keep that wreckage afloat. Even Lurch’s dogs would bail out.
Jack
/ 17th July 2020The people Verity’s age I know like to ask others that question too, in particular regarding critique being taboo. “Why Jacinda?”
They can’t believe the answers! – because she’s on TV, or because she has a baby.
Gezza
/ 17th July 2020Watched a bit of the AM Show this morning. Their “political panel” spot previously taken by Willie Jackson & Judith Collins today was taken by David Parker & Simon Bridges.
The difference in presentation by Bridges was quite remarkable. He was completely relaxed, at times even effervescent, humourous, positive, smiling & joking the whole time. Even his ear-grating accent seems to have improved. (Bob Jones wrote in one of his recent efforts on his No Punches Pulled blog that Bridges has been taking elocution lessons – but as it’s often completely satirical it wasn’t clear if he was serious or taking the Mickey.)
Parker was dry as a bone, objected to Bridges calling him Daveo, & on the whole Bridges seemed the more lively & likeable of the two.
If Bridges had managed to project the persona he showed this morning during his time as leader the polls I reckon would have been far more favourable to him. He put his relaxed state & sunny disposition down to having the weight of leadership lifted from his shoulders.
David
/ 17th July 2020Parker looked like he was about to scream “get off my lawn” he sounded and looked terrible and that I imagine will be a one off appearance.
Bridges looked great, funny when the pressure comes off how different he is.
Gezza
/ 17th July 2020Parker was just his usual self. He’s always come across as a competent, hardworking technocrat with a generally serious demeanour. In a way, I like it that he doesn’t attempt to adopt a different persona for marketing purposes. It’s just not his style.
Given the hi-speed low-brow light-entertainment format of the AM show he’s not Labour’s best choice for that slot. I agree with you – they should quickly find someone else who can quip & relax & smile when that’s the best response.
I personally don’t like either tv1’s Breakfast Show or tv3’s AM show & can’t watch either of them for long. I just happened to be channel surfing briefly while having breakfast & heard Garner say Bridges was going to be on soon.
duperez
/ 17th July 2020A great illustration of how the world has changed. The breakfast TV shows and Hosking in the morning are critical, essential forums in our democratic process. Politicians have to be there. They are booked in, have their regular slots just like Coronation Street or Play School. The venue is a Big Top and of course someone who couldn’t juggle, somersault, stand the heights let alone catch the trapeze bar, is the ringmaster. Couldn’t make it as a clown either but now does it.
The pollies are beholden to them, the gig is not voluntary.
When it’s the only show in town it can be whatever it wants. Cruelty to ‘dumb’ animals killed a lot of circuses. Those that persist do so on the support of a captive dumbed down audience.
Blazer
/ 17th July 2020Gerry Brownlee is in charge of election slogans…any suggestions…. can you improve on mine…
‘Collins and Brownlee-just your…cup of..tea’
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020National Cures Wokeness.
Kitty Catkin
/ 17th July 2020It would be hard not to improve on Blazer’s effort.
Gerrit
/ 17th July 2020[Deleted, don’t make assertions about identities or affiliations. PG]
lurcher1948
/ 17th July 2020I have just heard Ms Collins use the hated”woke”word why talking about PM Jacinda Ardern to Ryan Bridges on radio Magic National.How a 61 yo female can use that rightwing madeup word to describe another female shows a lack of respect and integrity…my thoughts
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Why be sexist, Lurch? If I can call woke females woke why shouldn’t Collins?
After all the Left invented the name, not the Right. Now they don’t like their own name?
Gezza
/ 17th July 2020I didn’t pay much attention to the term “woke” until Bomber Bradbury suddenly attacked leftists who were too woke on The Daily Blog. 😐
NOEL
/ 17th July 2020https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2020/jan/21/how-the-word-woke-was-weaponised-by-the-right
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Pretentiousness will always attract deserved ridicule.
Jack
/ 17th July 2020https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/122155828/we-shouldnt-use-the-word-breakdown-when-talking-about-todd-muller–experts
Speaking of outdated words: So true. I was earlier disappointed to see on this site a lay person’s ignorant diagnosis of Mr Muller’s mental state, and unimpressed by Mr Peter’s stirring. I got the impression that he’s fine, he was being real to himself, his family and his country. Hardly a ‘break down’. More like authenticity. As for his party, he tried, then he got out the moment he diagnosed himself as a fraud in that role. Mr Muller is to be admired. He will probably continue on being servant hearted. We need a team of those in government.
A ‘break down’ is usually just a good cry and leads to a mending. We were given tears for a reason.
I agree that we should abolish the term -but not through a new law, pu-leeze!
duperez
/ 17th July 2020‘Mental health’ and ‘breakdown?”
Those words hadn’t occurred to me in any sense at all until I read something from one of the media ‘insiders.’ It is behind their wall in, ‘Audrey Young: Todd Muller’s resignation catastrophic for National, but essential for him.’
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12347847
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020I’ve seen enough breakdowns to know they can be real and don’t care what they are called. Worrying about names is reserved for those who don’t have them. So too psychiatric diagnoses and labels. Finding ways out matters much more.
Tom Hunter
/ 17th July 2020Ha! I knew Left-wingers years ago in the US who used the word “Woke” quite openly, as a nod-and-a-wink that they knew something you didn’t. More cultural appropriation from Black slang (as with “lit”). And it’s just expanded from there.
Whenever I see a Lefty whining about how the Right have “pounced” on a story or “weaponised” a Lefty term, I know that the story is very bad for the Left and the term has begin to blowback on them.
My fave in that world is “Fake News”, which people now forget was created by the likes of Obama and company in the wake of Trump’s 2016 win t explain how so many morons voted for him. They’d listened to too much Fake News on Fox News and the like. Their problem was that Trump simply took it over and applied it the rest of the MSM – and it stuck almost instantly. But that was due to millions of Americans looking at the likes of the NYT and CNN and going, “Oh yeah!”
duperez
/ 17th July 2020It’s got me beat. Can you tell me how I know if something is in fact ‘fake news’?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020When it merely indulges the author’s prejudices?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Some excellent policies here from Collins today:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122153158/national-announces-biggest-infrastructure-package-in-history
The northern highway network is decades overdue and will boost the regions hugely. Makes Jones’ Regional Development handouts look like the meaningless crap they are.
And replacing the RMA bureaucracy by clear national standards is exactly what is needed.
Great news.
duperez
/ 17th July 2020For all that anything Jones says and does being meaningless crap you at least appreciate that the impact of Peters and Jones in focusing National MPs and their party in Northland sees the Brynderwyn hills tunnel notion being resurrected.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020True. Good to know he has been useful.
duperez
/ 17th July 2020Years ago I had a letter published suggesting that (totally selfishly) the best electorate to live in was one with a one vote majority for the incumbent and a one seat majority in the House.
Peters winning the by-election in 2015 was just a minor blip in the national political scene with NZF comfortable in Parliament with 8.6% of the vote but his ‘intrusion’ locally made it personal to the region and personal to the party who felt a butt-kicking.
The feeling of the lackadaisical John Carter/Phil Heatley years has gone and the awareness sees the notion of the tunnel back. (Didn’t the feasibility study for that emanate from further north?)
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020The downside of the Peters victory was the preservation of the destructive RMA regime. That has been far more costly.
Corky
/ 17th July 2020”And replacing the RMA bureaucracy by clear national standards is exactly what is needed.”
That will draw votes to National. Getting changes past Maori and socialists will be another matter. The RMA is a wellspring for Maori and Leftie bureaucratic power. Add councils to the mix.
I have a relly who runs a tree maintenance and lawn service. He applied for a council contract to drop four 60 ft poplars on a slight lean over a river. Part of the contract stipulated the trees must not fall into the river, they had to fall landside. Because of health and safety regulations, a top to bottom take down was not permissible😄. Anyway, my relly hired an old forestry mate who did the near impossible and cut the trees down as required.
Fast forward two years and the council boss who gave my relly the contract is spotted overseeing other trees being cut down into the river. My relly had a ‘frank and vigoures’ discussion with this boss about bullshit and hypocrisy.
This type of bs happens everyday in NZ. The sooner the RMA is gone, the better.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Yes, ear to ear b.s. reigns there. Whole departments of it. There will be armies of unemployable paper pushers when the RMA goes.
Alan Foster
/ 17th July 2020My Party is going to spend $200 Billion on a 6 lane highway from Auckland to Wellington.
We’re going to reduce taxation too.
Don’t forget that the RMA was introduced into Law by the National Party (Simon Upton)
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Upton was a fool. Your party struggles to build a cycleway but would have no difficulty spending $200b. They just wouldn’t have anything to show for it but a bigger bureaucracy on more on welfare.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020*and not on
Alan Foster
/ 17th July 2020Building cycleways was Key’s idea & we did have trouble – you’re certainly on to it
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Key’s coast to coast cycleway up here was built and created jobs. So too in other regions.
Yours have destroyed livelihoods and businesses in the cities even before completion. But you take no responsibility.
Gezza
/ 17th July 2020Has anybody ever come up with any reliable figures for how many ongoing jobs & how much local income these National cycleways have generated? They always struck me as likely to create relatively little of either. There’s one near my place & it’s seemingly mainly used by locals for walking their dogs. Not a lot of touring cyclists are evident. And those one does see don’t look they’re pumping megabucks into the economy.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020I don’t know but two of our guest groups last summer were doing the ride and we stayed in a motel complex in Kaikohe which had a large room filled with hire bikes to serve riders.
https://www.twincoastcycletrail.kiwi.nz/trail-details/
Alan Foster
/ 18th July 2020Wilco- you’re jumping to conclusions that My Party is the Labour Party.
Wrong, wrong, wrong
Alan Wilkinson
/ 18th July 2020What other party could it be, AF? Not that there is anything wrong with expecting SH1 to be four lane dual carriage between main cities.
Corky
/ 17th July 2020Please don’t remind us.
Kitty Catkin
/ 17th July 2020I see touring cyclists on our main roads, or did.
They’ll have to stay somewhere, but I suspect it’s not 5 star.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020That’s ok up here, Kitty. These little regional places don’t have 5 star accommodation. If they did they probably wouldn’t need the cycleway.
Kitty Catkin
/ 18th July 2020They don’t look hard up, just the sort who like biking. Chacun a son gout.
seer
/ 17th July 2020Apparently, the death rate dropped here during the covid shutdown. Perhaps a hint as to how we should live our lives!
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020On welfare stealing from the future?
Kitty Catkin
/ 17th July 2020The average number of over 80s deaths was up by 300+.
Call me Ishmael...
/ 17th July 2020Science doesn’t change depending on who’s in charge.
Trump’s America: We will not let science stand in our way.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020“Science doesn’t change depending on who’s in charge.”
Of course it does. Who do you think funds it?
Pink David
/ 17th July 2020This is a spectacular lie even by your standards.
Tom Hunter
/ 17th July 2020An out of context quote so blatantly false that even NeverTrumper CNN anchor Jake Tapper called it out, FFS:
Pink David
/ 17th July 2020“Trump’s America: We will not let science stand in our way.”
I’ll add this. Show us the science that shows children should not be back at school. I can see none at all. Covid’s most interesting aspect is it is almost total no issue for children.
Sweden has had schools open for the duration. No issues.
duperez
/ 17th July 2020“Small Bay of Plenty town overrun with wandering horses”
Warning: Don’t opening this link if wild animals running wild upset you. Accepting two of the photos are of the same wild mob from different angles.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122150075/small-bay-of-plenty-town-overrun-with-wandering-horses
Kitty Catkin
/ 17th July 2020I see that educated pig dogs who have a qualification from a training course have cheaper registration there. It sounds a most interesting town.
lurcher1948
/ 17th July 2020National Party is cleaning and leaving,look whose left the sinking ship
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1283936213217374209/qf6cwly8?format=jpg&name=small
Corky
/ 17th July 2020It’s called renewal. Your body is doing it all the time. A body is like an organisation, it always needs fresh life force otherwise it first becomes stale ..than dies.
He’s an example of Tory class. This sheila was on One News tonight along with 2 other scruffy types supporting Labour and the Maori Party, I think?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/418432/tania-tapsell-national-s-new-east-coast-candidate
Corky
/ 17th July 2020Addition: Re Peter Tapsell regarding young Maori.
”One was the importance of discipline and having a clear sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. The second thing was learning how to work hard. And the third was developing the capacity to appreciate beauty — whether that was the beauty of a sunset or the beauty of the bush. Just simple beauty.”
Ironically it’s NO3 I find missing in many young Maori. Their world is grey. A flower; a waterfall, a house are just labels to them. To understand a house could become an extension of a persons imagination and creativity is beyond them. It’s just a house..better than sleeping under a bridge.
You see the results in court.
https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/rees-tapsell-dad-wasnt-soft-on-us/
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Nice link, Corky. Lots of interesting comments.
To pick up on the appreciation of beauty, I think it has a lot of components – an absence of fear, an understanding of creativity, an experience of achievement, a language and vocabulary to handle it. Pretty much all of these are missing in many.
Corky
/ 17th July 2020Yes, true. And as Peter said, so sad for all of us in the end.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020But given the right time, place and people all of those can be fixed or taught to turn lives around – unless drugs.
Gezza
/ 17th July 2020The third Maori female contender on 1News at 6 was the Green Party’s Meredith Akuhata-Brown, Corks.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/three-m-ori-women-headline-battle-east-coast-seat-in-upcoming-election?auto=6172336360001
Corky
/ 17th July 2020Thanks.
lurcher1948
/ 17th July 2020Is it called renewal when your brightest experienced stars leave,others like me, lurcher would say RATS and a sinking ship,Corky,
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020I guess you are better acquainted with RATS, Lurch.
I’m just cheering that JC is putting up good and long overdue policies and has done a very good job of rearranging her team.
Kitty Catkin
/ 18th July 2020Alan, one of LM Montgomery’s cousins remarked inanely ‘After all, I think there is nothing so pretty as nature.’ LMM was catty enough to use this line for an inane character in one of her books.
It is surely impossible to say that anyone and especially an entire group or race has no sense of beauty and can’t appreciate it unless one knows them. Even people with low IQ can admire pretty things.It’s an individual thing and it’s impossible to generalise.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 18th July 2020I don’t say an entire group but there are a lot. Yes, I’m going on my personal experience and perceptions. I think virtually everyone has the capacity but for many it is blocked by the things I listed. I have seen it being unblocked.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 17th July 2020Thunderous rain up here tonight. SH1 flooded and closed at Moerewa. Accompanied stepdaughter and dogs out to feed the horses earlier and after waiting 20 mins for the deluge to stop got a break long enough to get it done.