FYI I’ve opened this one up for full public reading, listening & sharing after requests from paying subscribers. Their support allows me to do this public interest journalism on Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate & poverty in public. #nzpol open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/...

When John Key sold 1000 state homes, it made headlines & sparked debate Now Chris Bishop has cancelled 3500 builds & selling 900 houses (with land extra) in what's been called a private developers' lolly scramble, it's hardly making a splash How #NZ has changed #nzpol

Our power bills have become completely detached from the cost of generating and distributing electrons. Given the purpose of price rises is solely to increase the size of the dividends paid to the Crown, they’re basically just taxation by other means #nzpol

All Business. The government’s new focus on a the homeless, beggars, and street people. “Move on” orders, fines and prison sentences. My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #Homes #Homeless #Poverty #prison #MentalHealth #Police

Quite right, it was all just to balance the budget. Outrageous betrayal of these groups of, most often low paid, women that had their claims vaporised #nzpol

Winston Peters is SuperMad. My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol

"See who's connected to whom in the Epstein files — 293,936+ documents exposed." epsteinsearch.info/network/

#PedophileProtectors @DOJ Epstein case!!! #Epstein #EpsteinFiles #TrumpEpsteinFiles

"Nobody wants to work anymore!" says the class of people who live off dividends.

Cartoon by @billbramhall.bsky.social.

“In 2002, across the country, only four days of local states of emergency were declared. In the first two months of this year alone, there have been at least 70.” Just to be clear, that’s nothing to do with climate change, right. Cos the climate isn’t changing. #nzpol

Led by ACT, but enthusiastically supported by National and NZF, the current NZ Government puts the life and limb of every worker in NZ behind company profits. #nzpol 🧵

“.. We could spend the whole day reacting to every buffoonish spectacle coming out of the White House, but that's exactly what they want: for us to lose focus … Don't be distracted by the noise; watch what they are doing to your rights while you stare at the screen.”

'...“small government” was a social and economic failure in the 1980s here, in the US, and in the UK. Our dalliance with privatisation has robbed successive governments of the ability to equitably finance a range of public services, and to build and maintain key infrastructure.'

"Veolia, the multinational company contracted to operate Wellington’s wastewater plant, has been the subject of several overseas legal cases alleging maintenance failures that also resulted in raw sewage being discharged into the sea." But let's blame Tory Whanau - Bryce Edwards #nzpol

Trump’s billionaire allies now control X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Truth and Twitch They own Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ and NY Post — plus 185+ local tv stations and news in 100 markets They control the AI you're asking for answers, the algorithms feeding you content, your personal data

Social media companies are suppressing terms like “Epstein” and “ICE” and “voting” because they don’t want you thinking about those things. Like and share everything you see.

Remember, John Key gave Peter Thiel NZ citizenship after Thiel spent just 12 days in the country. So the guy she's talking about is a Kiwi. #nzpol #palantir

Works for me!

Evening pals. 😸 2 years ago tonight is the anniversary from when I was found 5 miles away from home after climbing into a van. I was missing for 36 hours . Thanks to local communities , friends and family, I was found safe. Just cold and hungry 😸 #caturday #adoptdontshop

But it's nothing to do with climate change, right? #nzpol #climatechange

"Parasites love nothing more than a weakened immune system, and Epstein said it himself as Brexit was coming round..." georgetsakraklides.substack.com/p/power-mone...

Funny how everything we learned about workplace safety from Pike River and Ashburton WINZ only survived until the next National Government #NZPol

If only Casey Costello had written in her diary who gave her the mystery documents #NZPol

“Wellington's sewage spill is just one of many examples of public service and infrastructure enshittification, begun by Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson, and continued by neoliberal factions across government, business, media, finance, and the public.” - Josh Drummond A must read folks #nzpol

The only reason there's an 'affordability' issue as the population ages is because the government refuses to tax rich people. The richest 350 families only pay 8% tax, and if Nicola Willis changed that, then the affordability problem goes away #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

i am not hiding anything, just "made multiple repeated mistakes for 20 years" on something that's pretty damn hard to be mistaken about. i mean when you own as many properties as these poor fuckers do it must be hard remembering all of them when it comes time to declare and register them. #nzpol

These mining fast-track applicants don't appear to genuinely benefit New Zealand. Removing limited resources, returning 2-5% royalties, and paying no tax. Then we get lugged with clean up costs (like Tui oilfields that cost $500m for taxpayers to clean up) #nzpol #Kiwi #NZ

We will spend the next 10 years trying to retrain new people because of the numbers of experienced people that have left the country. Its not just a brain drain. Re-training costs billions. Its a finanical disaster. #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

It seems Andrea Vance calling Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden a c**t was entirely appropriate... #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

We are demanding that EU co-legislators reject attempts in the AI Omnibus to remove a key transparency safeguard from the AI Act. We cannot open a loophole that would let providers exempt themselves from the AI Act’s high risk requirements with no transparency www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

Yep, this is a real New Zealand beer...

"Journalists decided to test whether the Grok chatbot still generates non‑consensual sexualized images, even after xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, and X... promised tighter safeguards. Unsurprisingly, it does." xAI's response: “Legacy Media Lies.” #musk #X #security

"AsyncRAT... allows attackers to remotely monitor and control your computer. ... From a high-level view, the infection chain is long, but every step looks just legitimate enough on its own to slip past casual checks." #windows #security #hackers #scams

We need the Climate Emergency Response Fund now more than ever. Instead we get this which is only going to make the climate emergency worse. #NZPol New liquefied natural gas terminal: 'Vital' or 'bonkers'? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Bring back firing squads for anyone involved. Don’t care who.

#AI #computers #security

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Unemployment rate: 5.4% (highest rate in a decade). 4,000 jobs lost in the last three months. 30,000 fewer jobs than two years ago. Annual wage growth: 2% (a five year low) Inflation rate: 3.1% Thank heavens Luxon, Willis and co are “Fixing the Basics” or we’d really be in the poo! #nzpol

A Private Eye cover from 15 years ago... #Epstein

One of my favourite radio shows... I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.