New Zealand is probably the most successful settler colony: the demographic weight of the Māori population is significant, so too the length and potential of its grievances, but all resistance has been institutionalised via the Māori seats, Waitangi Tribunal, Treaty settlements, RMA, and so on

Among a certain cohort, TVNZ is simply a cipher for “woke”, so the incentive for confrontation is in the government’s favour if it wishes to reinforce the loyalty of said cohort

It’s low IQ behaviour to compose a racist haka denigrating Indians as a people as opposed to simply criticising one specific individual whose race and ethnicity is actually irrelevant

Barry, just let it go x

I assume the complaint about the conduct of a TVNZ journalist in Parliament involves Benedict Collins, who is a picture of civility compared to the Mad Dog days of 3 News under Duncan Garner, Patrick Gower, and Tova O’Brien

Every election year I think about the time Curwen visited the grave of Sir Robert Muldoon in 2017 to ask for his spiritual intervention in coalition negotiations, pleading for his statist hand to guide the preferences of New Zealand First

Half of the votes National has lost since the election have gone to NZF, so National has to say NZF will go with Labour. Half of NZF new votes have come from National, so NZF has to rule out Labour (at least until the day after the election). This dynamic will repeat until election day

Th government isn’t amending Treaty clauses in good faith, obviously, but it’s true that descriptive/specific clauses are preferable to general/operative clauses

The age of, to use the British parlance, “big beasts” is over: Clark, Key, and Ardern’s dominance of their parties and PPM polls seems like a relic now

NZ First is cutting the left’s lunch: structural separation of both the gentailers and the supermarket duopoly. This is actually based

It may not be scientific and yet it’s an empirical fact that the Scottish genetic material will overpower any and all admixtures. Intermarriage between Māori and the Scots is proof of this

I remember I once missed an AKL-WGTN flight and I was on the “final call” list of shame and people were tweeting at me to get on my flight. This is a very small country

Blockbuster start by John Campbell on Morning Report. In the course of a single morning he’s back to serving triple shot black coffee. The cold, soggy porridge of old is off the menu

Let’s say that I’m on a 9.30am flight from Dunedin to Auckland (scheduled landing at 11.20am). What do punters reckon the chances are this flight will actually still go ahead tomorrow?

In the midst of the war on Iran, it’s clear the end of the Long 2016, and its attendant interregnum, was October 7. It wasn’t Trump’s first election, or the pandemic, or AI-led growth. The end of the Western artifice was in Gaza in 2023, and history will remember it as the turning point of the 21C

We just read news stories from RNZ and forget the concept of political columns even exists.

Now that Stuff’s mastheads are behind a paywall, and the Herald’s premium content too, where do normal people get their political news when Stuff’s website is just a portal to TradeMe Property and the Herald’s to OneRoof? The political journalism is usually behind the paywall…

Asking for a factcheck on the following vibes - highly developed countries are unlikely to experience dramatic *physical* fuel shortages, but they’ll pay through the nose - these huge price rises will be felt across almost every product in the economy; and - the least developed countries will starve

MBIE’s snapshot on stocks in-country and on the water are worse than useless. We need the curve - what is the depletion timeline if supply reduces? Sensible countries including Australia are identifying trade in strategic resources to vouchsafe at least some diesel. We need to plan the same for food

He’s so back

Mr Hooton is obviously correct that diesel rationing must begin at once, and that the consequences of a diesel shortage are catastrophic, and that a “diesel for food” arrangement is New Zealand’s best leverage, and thus the chances of the government actually acting now are low to nil

There is a great deal to be said in favour of a highly educated, competent, and morally robust governing class, as opposed to whatever it is the English-speaking world has

A nation of warrior scholars vs a government of real estate fraudsters. I am so surprised the fraudsters are losing

1PM PODIUM OF TRUTH IS SO BACK

I think this government really do drink their own Koolaid, and genuinely believe that their projects just don't face the same kinds of risks as previous governments, because they are just inherently Better Managers.

Mr Luxon is one of those very rare people whom its impossible to apply a theory of mind. Can you imagine his inner life in any form but its absence? The only books he reads are self-help. He cannot maintain an exchange of complex thoughts. Every interview descends into banalities within minutes

Just envision that a Government came to power and cancelled a whole raft of essential programmes which would reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels, only for there to be a once in a century oil crisis.

I actually have really hot polls, but you wouldn't know them, they're from the UK

No it’s fine you see we have contracts and no one would ever go back on a signed contact

If my previous skeet on this was too sarcastic, let me be clear: in a multipolar world, every import is a potential banana skin unless you're a big dog. New Zealand is a fucking chihuahua but our current policies (esp. around fossil fuels) pretend we're a big dog and it's reckless and dumb #nzpol

The local impacts of the war in Iran are completely foreseeable, except to the New Zealand government for which the easily accessible and common sense information below will come as a total shock as soon as disruptions hit April’s scheduled deliveries

If He survives past Tuesday, His government won’t last past November

I'm so old that I can remember when this guy had a mystique that excited the pundit class - not yet even in Parliament, but already spoken of as a potential future PM, who is now destined to be remembered as little more than the David Brent of #nzpol

Replacing Mr Luxon may arrest the slide, but all the relevant circumstances - imported inflation and interest rate rises, energy constraints, Mr Peters - are outside of the direct control of the incoming leader, and all available actions are outside the tiny parametres of their ideology

Post Roger and Ruth, the Clark and Key governments were able to refound (or refund) the social contract on milk, property, and China. That ran out in December 2019. Nothing has replaced it.

The Covid pandemic was extraordinary because it was Jacinda Ardern’s personal authority and charisma, not State capacity, that underpinned the successful response. When State capacity was required - vaccine procurement, roll out, enforcing sovereignty on Parliament’s own damn lawn - it was wanting

October 7 was a clarifying and radicalising moment for all decent, thinking people. And in New Zealand none of its warnings were heeded: there were no moral corrections and geopolitical realignments; no urgent action to secure energy independence and a measure of supply chain resilience; nil

Right-wing commentators were *obsessed* with what they fancied was the former Labour govt's control of the media. Yet now we have what looks like direct political interference with reporting that ministers didn't like. Far out. newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/04/t...

Ok does anyone else remember how Luxon said that as PM he was going to ring all the Chief Execs of Govt Departments and arms length organisations each day to get progress updates? It was ridiculous and the media nodded and said "ooh isn't he Business" despite it being madder than a hat for tits.

I love how quickly New Zealand media gloss over that Jacinda Ardern is still the most popular politician according to polls measuring favourability, and she always was as Prime Minister as well which was always contrary to the dominant gallery narrative that she had become a figure of division

The social media remnants of Woke 2.0 arguing a) we should ban disabled people from public life because of an unfortunate event at an awards ceremony in England and b) we should not only accommodate but encourage anti-social behaviour on mass transit, and any suggestion otherwise is fascistic. OK

The Wellington Water disaster is also a useful demonstration of how increased investment in and of itself is insufficient. The operational model (insourced vs outsourced, etc) and governance model (governed directly or via devolved boards, etc) are just as important, and appeared to be ignored

outsourcing is superficially attractive to executives and chairs because it would *appear* to also transfer accountability, introducing another layer between operator-management-governance. but when things go catastrophically wrong the outsourced operation is no protection against accountability

I do think, in general, I’m a literate reader in the information environment, but i genuinely cannot parse from the things I read whether AI is a Silicon Valley hype scam to pump up share prices, a doomed structural response to declining profitability, or the end of the world. Or something else?

I’m completely checked out of Māori politics. Fakers and middle class professionals dominate the debate (to the extent there even is one) so much so that “Māori politics” has simply become a stage for their many and varied psychodramas

replying “my husband is samoan, so talofa” over and over. all time classic line

life ending and infrastructure destroying floods are now an annual occurrence in new zealand. there is no political recognition of this new reality, and thus there is no resourcing for its prevention. we are not ready

To echo @morgangodfery.bsky.social Dunedin boosting, I think there is a very special combination of high levels of organised labour (historically South Dunedin, ATM University and Hospital) for the city size, together with the University as an ideas factory that is a high proportion of the city.

new zealand’s unspoken foreign and defence policy of relying on the australian landmass isn’t going to cut it much longer. unfortunately for the “independent foreign policy” guys, and the “abolish the military” ones too, probably exactly the opposite is needed

sir tim shadbolt. what a character. what a ripper