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Greg Morison's avatar

Couldn't agree more John.

I was in Samoa (Upolu) on the night that the Manawani went down and to wake up on that Sunday morning to learn that she had sunk was embarrassing to say the least. Incompetence of the highest order and to now learn that at least two of our remaining naval vessels are currently floating idle because there are insufficiently qualified personnel to crew them is laughable (I cynically presume that prior to the human error findings in respect of the Manawanui those ships were carrying out duties/business as usual.

NZ is a third world country incapable of training personnel to disengage the auto-pilot on either a Cook Strait ferry or a naval research vessel. It is my understanding that there was no-one on board the Manawanui who knew how to use most of the technology on board. And yet no-one is held accountable and the tax payer foots the bill for the review, the ongoing clean-up as well not to mention the $9 billion defence forces funding announcement from Crusher yesterday.

It is no wonder that I baulk every time I shove tax payments in the direction of the IRD.

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John McLean's avatar

Great insights Greg. I'm a bit doubtful the Manawanui was genuinely surveying the seabed. Perhaps they were just pissing around. Farcical, all round

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Just Boris's avatar

Oh jeez, I’m still laughing at the ‘Rear Admiral David Proctor’ giggle. My wife is scoffing, but that was really just so apposite & downright funny. ‘Not a proctologist’ huh? 😂😂 sorry, sad sense of humour I’ve got.

But maybe that’s where these Navy muppets need to shine a light and find their next strategy. This DEI one didn’t work so well for them did it….

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Jim Dowsett's avatar

Nor in the California fires either!

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Kari's avatar

Why is it that these days someone who holds a position of responsibility, takes no responsibility when they fuck up?

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Graham Hill's avatar

Thank you for your article. I guess the team building HR rah rah was to be expected.

I do think that the Captain's advice to empty bowells and bladders was sensible. A life raft in windy and rough conditions is an experiece of torment. Most rafts, and I own one, do not have solid floor's and move with the swells. Its would be like walking on a water bed.

It is likely that sea water would be in the raft from crew getting in and sloshing around. Going to the toilet, let alone in mixed company, would not be easy with the motion and the likelihood of excrement and urine would be added to the sloshing water. Sea sickness a feature of life raft travel, hence they come stocked with meds for it, would be exacerbated by the mixture before adding to it.

A life raft is a device of last resort.

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Jim Dowsett's avatar

So we have a ‘Rear Admiral’ in charge of 2 x tied up frigates, a supply ship and a submarine near Samoa???? Will this idiot resign and be replaced by the Maori DEI ‘Commodore’? Is she also a Lesbian? Is this mandatory?

What a shambles, what a joke!

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Mike Houlding's avatar

Thanks John, see it too at Fake News and the NZ Herald https://www.facebook.com/groups/155840075059713

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Stuart Lee's avatar

Couldn't make this stuff up. Is like reading the Darwin Awards

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LDA's avatar

Once again proving why women on ships have always been considered bad luck. Listening to how the "Captain" addressed her crew like developmentally challenged toddlers, instead of the fighting force they're supposed to be, God Defend New Zealand because her "navy" sure can't.

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Hone Dustin's avatar

Absolutely sickening, I am totally repulsed

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David Hancock's avatar

OMG....More incredibly sad new unreported in the Nation's news just in this lonely outpost for subversives like ourselves. We remain indebted for your work John but the distain for the likes of Willie Jackson and the gutless bastards who now have the power to reverse the propellors on the Fourth Estate in this country but do nothing. Thank you again.

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Apr 9, 2025
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John McLean's avatar

thanks john. corrected

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