PM Chris Hipkins

[R650R]

Live trees, growing, helping hold the soil together and sequestering carbon are good. Dead trees, cut into logs with slash left piled where it fell - bad. Even you should be able to see there is a difference.
Trees planted after Bola did do a pretty ok job of holding the steep, unstable hillsides together. It was after they were cut that bad things started to happen.

Even you should be able to see that yes I can see that.

My remark was about the irony of the dual hats that tree said now wear.

[R650R]

Nice work chippie, Mash Potato is gone just like that....

Now if you’ll just sack that other racist man hater in same fashion you’ll win a LOT of voters over

[TheDemonLord]

Nice work chippie, Mash Potato is gone just like that....

Now if you’ll just sack that other racist man hater in same fashion you’ll win a LOT of voters over

If there was any justice in this world, all the farces that Stuart Nash presided over would be reversed as he's clearly corrupt as hell.

[husaberg]

Nice work chippie, Mash Potato is gone just like that....

Now if you’ll just sack that other racist man hater in same fashion you’ll win a LOT of voters over

Unlike this crowd?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-na...VQFJYMRUY3NS4/

THIS GOVERNMENT CAN’T BE TRUSTED WITH ANYTHING
JULY 04, 2020
Michael Woodhouse MICHAEL WOODHOUSE
Yet another mistake just goes to prove that this Government is not fit to manage the Covid-19 recovery, National’s Health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says. “Reports coming in this morning of personal details being leaked which reveals the identity of New Zealand’s current active cases, is yet another serious failing from this incompetent Government.

“This is unconscionable and unacceptable that those suffering from the incredibly dangerous virus now have to suffer further with their private details being leaked.

“The Government needs to get to the bottom of this, and quickly. The Ministry of Health have been assuring people since the beginning of the epidemic in New Zealand that personal details would remain private, it’s unfathomable that they couldn’t handle a simple task like this.

“Something as simple as keeping confidential information confidential should not be a difficult task, but if there is anything we have learnt from this shambolic Government it is that they cannot be trust with anything.

National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also received four unsolicited emails

.

Boag confessed to leaking the personal details of 18 people in Covid-19 managed isolation and quarantine to National MP Hamish Walker, who then leaked it to media. This morning, Woodhouse revealed he deleted four unsolicited emails from Boag.

Woodhouse told Nine to Noon Boag called him on Sunday 21 June to tell him she had information that could be "pertinent" to the Covid-19 response and "helpful" to him.

Walker announced on Thursday that he would not stand for re-election for the Southland electorate at the upcoming 2020 election.

Former National Party President Michelle Boag has left the National Party, after being a member for 47 years.
Her resignation comes after revelations she passed on private patient information to National health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse.

Woodhouse however remained on and is now shadow leader of the house.....

[TheDemonLord]

unlike this crowd?
Woodhouse however remained on and is now shadow leader of the house.....

but nashnal!

[R650R]

Integrity on steroids... chippers investigating the whole lobbying charade...

He’s hit a home run revealing lobbyists have their own swipe cards to enter the beehive. He straight up said if you come inside you come in the front door like everyone else. This affects both major parties via trade unions/road transport lobby.... but what I like is it will expose the Green money too...

[husaberg]

Integrity on steroids... chippers investigating the whole lobbying charade...

He’s hit a home run revealing lobbyists have their own swipe cards to enter the beehive. He straight up said if you come inside you come in the front door like everyone else. This affects both major parties via trade unions/road transport lobby.... but what I like is it will expose the Green money too...

reality differs

With Labour declaring just $150,000 in large donations last year, National raised more than $15 from its big money donors for every $1 Labour raised from its own large donors. However, Labour has historically relied on many smaller donations which are not immediately published by the Electoral Commission.

The National Party may start election year with a $2.3 million war chest raised from 24 big donors in 2022, while Labour has declared just $150,000 in large donations, according to Electoral Commission records.

The disparity has seen National raise more money from large donors in one year than Labour has raised in nearly a decade.

Most of National’s funds are thanks to a fundraising blitz from former deputy leader Paula Bennett who tapped richlisters, including New Zealand’s wealthiest man, for as much as $250,000 each last year. It is not clear how much of this funding was spent in 2022, and how much has been put aside for campaigning this year.

In total, National had collected the most from donors last year, with $2.31 million. ACT had been given $1.15m from its affluent supporters.
While Labour had received less than a 10th of what National had been given, reporting just $150,000 in significant donations.
Greens’ co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw had given their party a total of $122,472 between 2020 and the end of 2022.

Exceptionally wealthy donors are giving millions to the National and ACT parties ahead of the election, while the political Left struggles to attract many big backers.
The country’s richest man, billionaire Graeme Hart​, was one of three people to give National $250,000 last year. The party’s other mega donors included Auckland rich lister Murray Bolton and Zuru co-founder Nick Mowbray​.
No other political party had an individual donor forking out north of $200,000.
Te Pāti Māori appeared to have had no donations over $30,000. The Green Party only received donations that large from its co-leaders, who are forced by the party constitution to tithe a portion of their salaries

[TheDemonLord]

but nashnal!

Called it.

[R650R]

Oh dear... you think after you vilify a visiting women’s rights activist, observe and tacitly endorse the unruly aftermath that you’d do your homework on all the background issues at play....
But chippy was like a Deer in the headlights when asked on camera what is a women???
True it was a bit of ambush journalism but at this level you need to be ready for these moments.

[neels]

But chippy was like a Deer in the headlights when asked on camera what is a women???

It's a bullshit play by the journo, in the current climate whatever answer he gives will be grounds for someone to be offended, almost better to accept the accusation of avoiding the question and just not answer.

[TheDemonLord]

It's a bullshit play by the journo, in the current climate whatever answer he gives will be grounds for someone to be offended, almost better to accept the accusation of avoiding the question and just not answer.

Which is exactly the precise reason why it's not a Bullshit play.

There is an answer to that question. A definitive, scientifically, biologically, socially correct answer.

And if you are too much of a coward or too possessed by an ideology to give that answer - then the rest of us ought to know.

If someone is offended by the objective truth, then we should not pander to their delusion.

[neels]

It's a bullshit play by the journo, in the current climate whatever answer he gives will be grounds for someone to be offended, almost better to accept the accusation of avoiding the question and just not answer.

Which is exactly the precise reason why it's not a Bullshit play.

There is an answer to that question. A definitive, scientifically, biologically, socially correct answer.

And if you are too much of a coward or too possessed by an ideology to give that answer - then the rest of us ought to know.

If someone is offended by the objective truth, then we should not pander to their delusion.

And that post exactly proves my point.

There will also be people who hold the opposite opinion.

The media seem to be trying to beat the issue into a them vs them (or perhaps they vs them?) situation , presumably because it gets more headlines than people having reasoned discussion.

[TheDemonLord]

And that post exactly proves my point.

There will also be people who hold the opposite opinion.

The media seem to be trying to beat the issue into a them vs them (or perhaps they vs them?) situation , presumably because it gets more headlines than people having reasoned discussion.

This isn't a Media issue (although agree - they are complicit as hell).

This is not a matter of Opinion, Not is it a matter of discussion.

This is a matter of XY Chromosomes vs XX Chromosomes.

Now - to be clear - I actually know several Trans people, I've worked with them, drunk with them, Seen Cryptopsy live with them - I'm fine in public life to say that if it makes your ability to navigate this world a bit easier, then sure - I'll call you She or Him.

And for most genuinely Trans people - that is all they want - to be left alone and to live their life in the manner that suits them. Hence why I get along with the few I do know.

However - the limit I place on that is that there are certain biological realities that underpin our Sexually Dimorhphic species - Men and Women (and this will be perhaps my most controversial take ever) are not the same. No man has a Womb, can produce eggs and grow a Baby. Women likewise cannot produce Sperm,

And before anyone brings up the various extremely rare inter-sex conditions - IIRC those people are Sterile - they cannot reproduce - and as harsh as this sounds - they have a medical condition, they are not a separate gender.

If I take the Marxist position for a moment of 'everything is a social construct' - which has a tiny element of truth to it - sure - we have created a Gendered Society... on the primary basis that Men and Women are, on average, different.

We have sex-segregated spaces because most Women want privacy and don't want some creep leering at them when they are undressing. We have sex-segregated sports because the absolute best woman in the world gets trounced by mid-level Men in almost all sports (except extreme long distance running and swimming). We have Gender Roles because surprisingly - Women have certain things they like in a Man and Men have certain things they like in a Woman.

All of this rests upon a biological reality - and that is what certain activists are seeking to undermine. Whether it's Men trying to go for Smear Tests (despite not having a Cervix) or claiming that they can have periods, to the attempt to erase motherhood - by calling them Birthing persons and Chest feeding (y'know - the one thing only Women can do that happens to be vital for the continuation of our species).

So - no, this is not a matter of opinion or a matter for Debate - in the same way that it is not a matter of opinion or a matter for debate that water is wet.

The more they push, the more they try to cross that Rubricon, the more otherwise tolerant people are going to become intolerant.

[caseye]

Wow, argue with that neels, I'm pretty sure he/she , is right.
I'm also pretty sure I'm one those tolerant people who is about to become quite intolerant of anyone telling me a man can breastfeed a child, pretty sure it was my mum did that for me and my siblings.

[neels]

Wow, argue with that neels, I'm pretty sure he/she , is right

Not actually making any attempt to argue with that, however seem to have provided the opportunity for another absolutist anti-trans rant.

The point being made was that I can completely understand why Chippy didn't want to provide the soundbite that the journo was looking for, to spin into clickbait and provoke the other side of the argument from whatever his answer was, probably not caring what side that is as long as it generates advertising revenue.

There will always be people who hold extreme black and white views on either side of an argument, they are lost to any sort of rational discussion, it's left to the people with critical reasoning skills to actually come up with an answer that works for those that live in the real world with all of it's shades of grey.