The toxicity of the Murdoch press is powerfully conveyed here, including special mentions to Sharri Markson and Marcia Langton.

If the Chief Executive of MSD truly does not see what is wrong with providing personal incentives for staff to make particular decisions in assessing applications from the public, it's a concerning indication that the public service leadership does not grasp basic legal priciples.

... and a New Zealand citizen.

😌 🍵 Luxon's "disinterest extended to him refusing to answer RNZ's six attempts at whether he knew there was no night shelter for rough sleepers to drop into in Auckland ... Avoiding talking about it as another miserable winter hits is not a solution." www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

ICYMI- yesterday's #AI cartoon for @australia.theguardian.com

We're not telling staff to deny people support and ignore the law—absolutely not! We're just tying their pay and career progression to them not approving applications. This is completely different!

It would be interesting to look into how senior officials could be held to account for setting up such incentives. Those making decisions on social security matters should be making their decisions in line with legislation and published policy.

Worse, the choice to use such performance indicators is the choice of MSD’s chief executive. Ministers don’t order CEs to do this. In this regard Power has more agency than the camp commandants who tried to rely on the ‘following orders’ defence at Nuremberg. #nzpol

America: Birth Of A Nation | Official Trailer The Onion's look back on 250 years of American exceptionalism premieres July 3, just as our Founding Fathers predicted.

Good to see this. Hopefully, NZ Labour is coming to similar conclusions. The way to defeat right-wing populists is to fix broken economic and tax policies and make the state serve the interests of ordinary people, not simply offer FascismLite.

Government continues to make the case that my paper about what an ongoing failure by the political branches to meet the expected norms of accountability might mean for what courts are justified in doing really is quite topical. This from yesterday; I'm presenting my paper on Friday.

Postal pricing is influenced primarily by the continued insistence that NZ Post is run as a profit-making business instead of a public service.

Ministers modelled this behaviour. We shouldn't be surprised their staff do it too.

To repeat: NZ finds itself at the bottom of the OECD on lobbying - we basically have no effective rules governing lobbying This is eroding voter trust in democracy. It is corruption in plain sight NZ needs fair transparent regulations-any political parties ensuring this will get voter support

The Prime Minister wants professors to become millionaires from monetising their research discoveries. That would be (1) double-dipping & (2) socialising the risk to privatise the profits. The public have already paid for it & the researchers have been paid for it (not well in most cases, but paid).

My parcel from China arrived. It took 2 weeks from order to delivery and tracked postage was NZ$5.30. Here's what NZ Post would charge to send it back.

I'm very much feeling this sentiment in a different sphere. Regular people not giving in or giving up is the only way the corrupt do not win.

One of my first "Aha!" insights about the NZ economy after I arrived in 1993 was the weakness of the regulatory system which was built on the astonishingly naive belief that markets would solve any pricing issues. It's a total institutional and political failure to have not tackled this issue

Doing so would also be consistent with the actions that Mr Hipkins took as Prime Minister with regard to Michael Wood & Stuart Nash. Political upside: keeps government law-breaking under the spotlight Political downside: will need to comply with the same records law if re-elected to office #nzpol

“Allen was told by Burgess it was "well documented" that the Department of Internal Affairs' (DIA) IT systems are "inadequate to deal with many files," and that contributed to the use of the personal email address for government business.” Not a valid s17 defence. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

$6.3 million of govt money to win some publicity for 15 restaurants (so $420,000 per restaurant). The fact it's funded by the international visitor levy doesn't make it better - the levy is a substantial impost on those coming to NZ, including those just hoping to visit family.

I can fully believe that there are times when DIA's computer system is not fit for purpose. Burgess' suggestion that it couldn't handle a short briefing document, however, does not seem credible.

Maps like this showing Taiwan as part of China are normal in PRC "scholarship" because they are state-mandated and the PRC is avowedly expansionist. What it should do is start people thinking about what else in the data and conclusions is state-mandated.

Judith’s first email as President of the Law Commission: ‘Hi! I’m going to ruin the quality of our work through the use of unreliable and biased word salad machines!’ #nzpol

Ombudsman 'found it surprising the former staffer had no recollection of what he did with the lobbying document.' #NzPol

This is a direct scalp for @whljustin.bsky.social btw, whose inquiry appears to have prompted the resignation.

That isn’t social cohesion. That is creating a hierarchy of racism where some victims are seen as worthy and others are seen as an afterthought. We’ve seen this pattern over and over again. The budget included more than $600 million in Antisemitism measures, but did not mention Islamophobia once.

For the second time in the last decade, we've just had an appliance power cord burst into flames. In both cases, they were modern Made in China items. Our household has quite a lot of appliances made in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s that, despite decades of wear and tear, have given no similar problems.

Imagine being a CEO/PM — who calls himself a Christian — who can’t be bothered to find out basic information like ‘is there an overnight shelter for rough sleepers?’ before introducing legislation for the police to bully rough sleepers and make them ‘move on’.

These heartless shits need to be given their own ‘move on’ order at the election.

Seymour is so full of BS with no nuance, understanding or attention to ANY detail beyond $$$. Utterly hopeless 😐. thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30-... thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30-...

Interesting that Chris Bishop is both 'comfortable with where we've landed on the move on orders' and believes them to be overly broad and to unnecessarily infringe on fundamental rights. 🤔 bills.parliament.nz/v/4/75bdbd31...

True to form, the government rejects scrutiny of its policies and attacks an institution meant to ensure good governance.

What a relief to know that National is only 200 years behind the times #nzpol

From noted Marxist newsletter, Forbes

Thinking about all the recent plant closures. Plants doing fundamentals. For example food canning and pine processing. My best hope is that those plants have been mothballed rather than dismantled and parts sold off. You can come back from mothballed. #NZPOL

It's a horrifying thought that AI companies' greatest chance of success may not come from producing a product that is any good, but simply from the fact that the use of AI in education systems (whether approved or as a form of cheating) renders younger generations even more bloody useless than AI.

Yes

Haha, nice one @privateeyenews.bsky.social !

New Zealand Science: Step 1: cut science funding. Step 2: be baffled there's nothing to commercialise. Step 3: blame the professors. #nzpol

'The only sound we are allowed is the dry and dusty wringing of our craven hands.'

Oh look! Business NZ is pushing for the public to pay for businesses' costs through general taxation, rather than businesses paying particular levies for specific activities. Socialise the costs, privatise the profits? Surely not!

'"Luxon said the goal was to "brutally commercialise our science system". "I want professors to become millionaires because they're partnering with entrepreneurs and building out businesses...' I can't imagine a statement that less understands why people become scientists.

It’s the kind of foolish thinking that led in the 80s to DSIR botany staff making greeting cards for sale in a futile attempt to reach imposed commercial funding targets.

This thread is excellent. Thanks @maetl.bsky.social !

This could be summed up as tell me you don't understand how anything works (including your own job and role in the country) without telling me...

can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool

Everytime I see this guy this article springs to mind.

Luxon: "China is 6 years ahead of us on AI" China: