The NZ govt are putting huge funding into AI not because AI will be good for the country and its public institutions but because it presents itself as another way to ‘legitimately‘ move public money to the private sector.

The playbook.

National did an austerity, which, as the comparative studies already showed during the last global recession, deepens recession and delays recovery. Not even controversial. Widely accepted IMF type stuff. Rarely is the question asked, are our governments learning?

"President Trump, like Mr Orban, no doubt believes that everyone can be bought. America's elites are proving him right," Pressman wrote. "There is a Hungarian phrase I heard often: 'Van az a penz' - 'There's always a price.'"

Nicola Willis incorrectly claims economy has been growing well for the last 6 months & blames unimplemented tariffs for the monstrous ~1% GDP drop. The statistics prove Ms Willis a liar. And of note, Treasury had forecast positive growth, and zero recession as at Nov 2023 #nzpol

Years after an official reprimand over attempted interference at NZ universities, Chinese diplomats have again tried to pressure event organisers.

NZNO nurses are quite literally turning their back on a speech from Health Minister Simeon Brown at their AGM

After confirming I wanted to make an oral submission and heard 🦗 for days, got this email today. Why the urgency?!? Voters suppression of first order. #nzpol

BBC interview with one of the Korea workers who was shackled and imprisoned. This was nothing but an American own goal. Attempting to blow up the largest economic development project in Georgia history. Billions in investment, thousands of jobs for Americans. youtu.be/fcwJtWU4fn4?...

It's hard to see anything but a bleak future for all the peoples of the Middle East as long as people like Netanyahu remain in power.

"Israel has attacked the parties to a negotiation in the midst of their deliberations, indicating it has no interest in stopping the war in Gaza." This is becoming a pattern.

Some historical literacy may be useful: 1) inflation "target" was originally (1990) set as a range between 0% to 2% 2) "target" was revised to 0% to 3% in 1996 3) "target" was revised to 1% to 3% in 2002 4) midpoint of 2% (retaining 1% to 3% as range) was added in 2012. Rampant illiteracy🤔😠😡.

This 2% figure, the 30/30 rule, and related are generally rubbish. They are also 'the right answer' because 'everyone' says they are without any thought whatsoever. The 'right' answer verses serious thought plagues NZ in many areas. We can and should do better than this. #NZPOL

According to Willis, following Australia - the country where unemployment is lower, wages are higher, and to which Kiwis are moving in droves - would be economically illiterate.

gotta say tori branum going all karen brockovich on hyundai/lg engineers and siccing ice on them seems to have unified the korean left *and* korean right against her even the conservative cjd papers are starting to quote people who point out this second trump régime is "make america white again"

Putting aside questions about whether the University of Melbourne's handling of allegations against him was reasonable, it is clear that Descheemaeker holds views that are racist and/or colonialist and has a history of discussing indigenous people in a derogatory manner.

Treasury advice hasn’t changed since 1984 what’s new 🙄

Oof. Quite a thread.

Israel lobby summit for mayors - push to ban 'antisemitic symbols' such as keffiya, Palestinian flag, watermelon. Wendy Bacon @sstephanietrann.bsky.social cover the Gold Coast event #auspol michaelwest.com.au/israel-lobby...

Something folks are missing here: this raid wasn’t about “illegals taking American jobs.” It was about ICE storming the Hyundai–LG battery plant in Georgia, part of a $7.6B Metaplant project that isn’t even operational yet. 🧵

what do these people think korea is like lmao

The woman who reported the Korean Hyundai workers in Georgia to CBP/ICE is a Republican running for Congress named Tori Branum who imagines that in doing so, she’s “saving their lives in the long run.”

They cut the humanities and social sciences to redirect the money to 'real science', and then cut the fund anyway so we were all worse off.

The biggest divide is not between “right” and “left." It’s between democracy and oligarchy. The billionaires who control our economy and democracy seek to divide us. They want us to turn on each other so we don't look up and see that they have all the wealth and power.

I can save us all reformation stress by recommending our Cabinet Office invest in some commas and conjunctions. Eg, Hon Mark Mitchell can be rebranded as per:

While political ’leaders’ are complicit (or worse) in Israel’s genocide and war crimes, people around the world are showing solidarity with the people of Gaza.

This part of the opening sentence needs repeating frequently: “New Zealand's engineered post-Covid recession” The Reserve Bank and ministers “engineered” the recession. They deliberately created it. They didn’t like low unemployment levels, so they deliberately created more of it.

Retired Doctor has been going to Peaceful Protests for 60 years, but yesterday was the first time she felt afraid to go.

While Trans-Tasman free movement is in many ways a positive, one real problem is that it works as a political pressure release valve, meaning that NZ govts are able to avoid the full political consequences of their disastrous economic and social policy decisions.

It is so funny to me that NZ governments tout it as a win for NZ that we can work unfettered in Australia but aren't going to pursue a high wage economy here, it's like 'heyyyy everybody, you can leave for somewhere that treats you better REAL EASILY'

Foreign judges working in Hong Kong – including a Kiwi – are 'whitewashing an increasingly repressive and compromised legal system', says foundation

'Labour is shifting the debate on to the terrain the migrant-bashing right desires. Their arguments are legitimised, and they will always outbid you on ferocity and “authenticity”.'

Depressing news. Meanjin hardly posed a significant call on the University of Melbourne's finances: its annual budget was no more than a third of the VC's salary. To shut it down diminishes the University of Melbourne and leaves a large hole in Australia's already threadbare cultural landscape

NEW: Camp Sovereignty and anti-Zionist Jewish organisations have hit out at politicians, the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism and Zionist groups for failing to adequately respond to white supremacist extremism after the March for Australia rallies. www.deepcutnews.com/p/neo-nazis-...

Bill Shorten could fund Meanjin out of his own VC salary & not even notice it.

A very shortsighted decision. There is an unfortunate pattern across higher education and the arts in Aus and NZ in recent years of shutting things down on the basis that they are unsustainable or that their costs cannot be justified.

Here’s something I wrote on my commitment to cash www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Red line. My @smh @theage cartoon.

👀

This deal encapsulates much of what is wrong about Australia's approach to immigration and its approach to its Pacific neighbours. If these 354 people pose too much of a risk to be dispersed among 25 million Australians, how is it okay for them to be concentrated among 10,000 Nauruans??? #auspol

There is no moral justification for today’s extraordinary concentration of wealth. It is distorting politics, rigging markets, and granting unprecedented power to a handful of people. Closing our staggering wealth gap is crucial to the survival of our economy and our democracy.

I think the lesson for the left in NZ is that Turnbull rolling Abbott enabled the Libs to survive in government at the 2016 double dissolution—and ultimately stagger to 3 terms. If Abbott had remained PM, we would've witnessed Australia's first single-term govt since Scullin Labor in 1929–32

I wrote about why Quebec's proposal to ban public prayer isn't just a Charter issue, but also a jurisdictional one.

Something I didn't get to say yesterday: We heard over and over during the event about "human-centered" approaches to "AI". But if refusal is not on the table (at every level: individual students and teachers right up through UNESCO) then we have in fact centered the technology, not the people.

This headline is so deeply weird. But also, a much more interesting question than "why did she go" is "why was she invited". Clark says we need to engage with China, which is fine, but what diplomatic function do ex-PMs serve, and what empowers them to represent us for life?

A bit of an odd move for a right-wing government. If they were anything like their Liberal/National colleagues in Aus, they'd be gutting funding for history generally while throwing huge amounts of money at war commemoration specifically.

It was hardly surprising to see Helen Clark, John Key, Bob Carr, and Dan Andrews as the attendees from this part of the world - all have good credentials as "friends of China". Where, though, was Paul Keating?