This debate concerned a news article discussing the new PM's first speech: "Chris Hipkins reveals his first tasks as incoming PM."
Me Didn't read the whole thing, but there seems to be nothing of any consequence there. This might give them an excuse to throw out some of their nuttier ideas, like Three Waters, RNZ, TVNZ merger, and that idiotic hate speech garbage, so maybe a return to something closer to common sense.
And, sure enough, about a month later (as I upload this debate to my site) that is exactly what they are doing. The extreme woke-ism of Ardern is gone. Maybe I can consider voting for Labour again, now that they tyrant is gone!
Opponent 3 Waters is great, now they just need to get it up and running! Yeah nobody cares about the media merger. Why do you like Hate Speech Owen?
Actually, Three Waters in incredibly unpopular, and there is no basis at all to declare it "great". Many people care about the merger, because it has already cost a lot for absolutely nothing, and the hate speech legislation is just another way to repress free speech. We already have laws to cover genuine hate speech.
Me Three Waters is incredibly unpopular, and if they continue with it they will definitely fail at the election (although they most likely will, anyway). Many people care abut the massive money wasted on the merger, again over half the population disagree with it. And most "hate" speech doesn't involve hate at all, it's just a way the powerful (mostly leftist politicians) try to stop ideas they don't like.
Opponent Can't see it. Unfortunately
Me Well, we will see. Either way, those policies will be gone.
Opponent Time will tell aye
Opponent Rubbish you can go follow Luxs... hahaha... Labour is back.
Me I don't like Luxon, so I won't be following him. And if Labour is back with fair and reasonable policies, then fair enough, they might get my vote.
Opponent Thank you now you are taking... minimum wages is back on the table.
Me I've never been dedicated to one party or another. I just utterly despised the direction Ardern was taking the country in. Until she was PM, I often voted Labour.
Opponent Which must mean you think Cindy wasn't doing a good job and her leaving is a good thing?
Me Yes. That is correct.
Opponent Hater mulu e ule.
This is a Nuiean phrase which is somewhat impolite, so I won't mention it here. Pretty funny stuff when translation is so easy!
Me No need to get nasty! LOL
Opponent Here's a heads up! Carmel Sepuloni New Zealand Labour Party VP voted FOR abortion! That's a No from me! Most Relevant is selected, so some replies may have been filtered out.
Me Did anyone in Labour not vote for it?
Opponent 4 people didn't. But also, 33 people from national were for it, including Simon Bridges.
Me Interesting. It's a subject I can understand both sides of. I think it should only be used in extreme situations. After all, it could be seen as murder.
I was wondering if the abortion subject might kick off another level of disagreement, but it went nowhere, which was probably just as well!
Opponent There is nothing nutty about good clean water that councils are failing to deliver.
Me True, but we need to make it better, not worse.
Opponent Well councils are making it worse.
Me The top down approach has not been conspicuously successful elsewhere. Plus there is the issue of handing over control to Maori, which is maybe the bigger issue.
Opponent You must be some kind of special if you're saying hate speech is okay.
Me I can't answer that unless you define what hate speech is.
And, unsurprisingly, there is no answer to this, which is the real source of the problem. The government have no idea what they are doing, and even they can't say what hate speech is. What is hateful to one person, is fair criticism to another.
Opponent And you much be a special kind of ignorant to take two words and automatically assume someone supports the Hate Speech Law without taking into consideration what Hate Speech will be defined as!
Opponent And mandatory vaccinations (Nuremberg code breach) mandatory anything unless it's fruit and veggies and housing Things which WILL ACTUALLY HELP KIWIS..
Opponent Well vaccinations did help us. Just like the polio vaccines and tuberculosis vaccines helped us.
Opponent Medical staff have ALWAYS had mandatory vaccinations. This is not new, but feel free to only visit medical practices and hospitals that don't mandate vaccines for their staff....oh wait....
Me I agree with vaccinations in general, but it is debatable whether what we were given was really a vaccine. Also, I disagree with anything being mandatory. The government has no right to control how people manage their own health.
I need to emphasise here that I am not anti-vaccination, but I disagreed with the draconian approach taken by our government (and some others). I had two COVID vaccine doses, plus a booster, but if I was given the choice again, I would be hesitant.
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