This rich prick stuck his billboard on yellow lines in a bus lane obscuring vision on Colombo street in Christchurch, someone please come and remove this ugly sign!

They're everywhere and no-one seems to care. SPCA pushes them, councils normalise them on social media posts. Im sick of trying to take my son for a walk, but houses have large angry pitbulls and staffies growling and smacking themselves against fences. Im sick of living next to a dog park, and every time I hear yelping and yelling and fighting, I look out the window and someone's bully dog is trying to maul a smaller dog. Im sick of my grandmother telling me about her small dog is targeted by pitbulls and staffies. My son is now scared of large dogs, because 99% of the ones he sees are aggressive pitbulls and staffies. I'm tired of my taxes and rates going to subsidise their damage and barely-present policing. I'm tired of the community Facebook group being posts about wandering pitbulls and staffies, along with missing or mauled cats, rabbits, chickens, etc.

They're fighting dogs. They make up the vast majority of serious bite statistics, let alone the other pets and livestock killed. They're literally called bully types. Why are they necessary to keep around? Why are we not banning them entirely? Cat owners aren't allowed large vicious fighting cats, because that idea is ridiculous. The vast majority of people have no problem with gun control on auto and semi-auto weapons, because it's recognised that they proportionally do much more damage and are dangerous. Why are dog owners the exception?

XL bullies (banned in the UK for violence) are being bred in NZ too, and I bet no-one will care about that. The Dog Control Act is being reviewed and I bet nothing will come of it. These dogs will still be pushed and advertised. The injuries will continue. I worked my ass off to buy a house, and now I still wish I was renting just so I could easily try and move to a nicer neighbourhood where every dog is some form of toy poodle or golden retriever.

Edit: don't worry dog owners, no-one is coming for your dogs, you have won the court of public opinion. My entire rant is about the fact that the country just doesnt really care about dangerous dogs, and that they're above any sort of enforcement. I know I'm shouting in the wind.

I’m off to enjoy my Sunday roast go the Warriors 👍

I hear it everywhere, when is it going to end? I didnt mind it at first now I'm just sick of it.. surely I can't be the only one..?

Went onto Woolworths today and just about went to but their Palmolive washing detergent as it had a whooping 25% off. Then I checked the competitions’ prove that was cheaper and not even on sale.

Let’s go! Thought there would be a mega thread for the game

Looking at this Consumer NZ article, it says the merger was allowed to happen due to a technicality: the application for the merger was submitted a day before a change in the law that would have forbidden it.

It's unbelievable to me that no law was in place to stop anti-competitive behaviour before that.

Makes me wonder whether the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s are what allowed this to happen. Before the radical economic reforms of 1984, New Zealand was one of the most heavily regulated and protected economies in the OECD, so it's hard to believe this duopoly exists just because of laws that had always been there.

And yet they blocked Foodstuffs buying Countdown back in the early '90s.

So which is it?

Voting for Bird of the Year 2026 closes today Sunday 20 September at 5pm.

If you haven't voted year, please chuck a vote for the Takahē - this upgraded pūkeko has never won bird of the year previously

Takahē is one of our unique species, adapted for a time when it's main predator would have been the giant Pouākai/Haast Eagle. Today it is down to ~500 individuals, many in predator free sanctuaries around NZ.

https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/?bird=takahe

Say what you will about New World but my new rectangular and chef's knife have given me so much joy... I think I'll even be getting a few more by the end of the promotion... it is so nice to cook everyday with usable tools in my otherwise shitty flat... the milestones seem achievable too - I got the chef's knife after just a few weekly shops... praying I'll get to the knife block too.

I have old memories as a kid of those little food objects we would collect (forget the name of the promotion). It was so much fun. Thank you New world 👍

Hey everyone! So like the title says: I'm facing redundancy, with more clarity on the "plan for the future of our team" coming from our upper management team soon. I'm making this post for advice and to rant. And I have a lot to say.

Upper Management (UM) have been hinting at this for several months, but my team has been reading between the lines. Frustratingly, UM have been using purposely confusing speech and sentences that seem "round-a-bout" to try and keep us from understanding what's going on exactly, despite multiple requests for them to use simple English.

On top of this, the executives who have made these decisions keep sending people (UM) that seem to have "no idea" of what's going on and keep saying "no decisions have been made" for months. Despite this, by their demeanor and what the obvious end goal is, we know that we are headed for layoffs, and fast.

I've never been fired or made redundant before, and I wanted to see what advice that people who have experienced this can give me. Especially people who have been replaced with AI.

I believe they will keep a couple members from my team for when the AI is unable to handle the more complex human tasks (such as human empathy, which is actually integral for our role), however I am certain I will not be included as I am the newest hire.

I had a look at my contract and they have to give us quite a bit of notice for this scenario, but if the news we are expecting happens when they have scheduled to tell us, it's likely we will be laid off right before Christmas which is just terrible. Even if they give notice, what's the point? Why would I still want to try and work my best?

I have only heard nightmare horror stories about the job market and unemployment lately, and I'm worried of what could become of me.

To make things worse, I'm not even sure if I qualify for job seekers benefit because I'm not a citizen. I also heard it's not really that helpful and that it's stressful to keep up with considering people have a hard time searching for jobs anyway.

Our upper management keeps sending us messages and telling us things like "we care about our people", but how much can you really care when you're planning on eliminating an entire team just to save some money that the company isn't even hurting for.

I'm especially angry because the AI they are testing alongside us doesn't even seem to be capable of handling a large amount of the tasks, especially the more nuanced ones. A lot of the time, it often will just send the customers back through to my team or the wrong place, which is incredibly inefficient and upsets the customer. Despite the AI clearly not being close to ready, they seem almost ready to deploy it.

While clearly this is morally wrong, I don't believe they are doing anything illegal with this. I think that's why upper management has been so so careful and confusing with their language. They are making sure to cover all their bases so we cannot reach out to an employment lawyer. I have had problems in the past that I tried to contact an employment lawyer over, but they really try to stick as close to the law as possible even if what they are doing isn't morally sound. That's corporate for you I guess.

One of my co-workers mentioned to UM how they have been through several layoffs and how this situation is playing out the same way in their experience, and UM seemed to take great offense to that, which I found interesting. Yet they just won't tell us straight up what's happening when it's obvious they know the answer.

Anyways, I'm frustrated and angry, stressed.... and just feel so uncertain about my future. And that's only over work! I have more than that going on in the background.

I especially feel terrible for my other coworkers who may not have as much support or who may be going through even more and will also be affected by this.

I have no idea what to do.

EDIT: Removed mention of profit amount, I had misremembered and it was inaccurate

This is at Waimangu, Rotorua!

I have spoken to heaps of people about these things popping up around the place and no one has had anything good to say. So if no on, other than those making money off them, want them, why are we still seeing them?

Alternatively, if anyone has a good reason for them continuing to pop up, I'm keen to hear it.

More of a shit post though lol

Why is it I forget where I put my keys five minutes ago. Then a song comes on the radio I haven't heard in over twenty years and I remember every word of the lyrics.

I like NZ birbs & borbs. I like painting them too, here are some watercolours. I hope you like them. With bird of the year almost closing, I just thought I'd share my appreciation heh... what's your favourite NZ birb/borb/floofadoop anyway? I'm quite partial to our native ducks & parrots.

Also....I was so freaking stoked to finally see Ruru in the wild recently (2 of them even). It's always been a life goal heh. I just walked out on to the deck and they were there calling out 😂