So, the data belonging to between 106,000 and 126,000 users has been compromised? Around the entire population of Dunedin? That sounds ... kinda bad?

Shit. (And not in Clay Davis tones ... .) Can someone please check on Wendell Pierce and Dominic West, because I fear the rule-of-three kicking in.

Garrick Tremain - that old codger who doodled out "edgy" and "not cowed" (or, "what old white people think") cartoons - just died. This bit from the tail end of the Otago Daily Times story reporting his death is ... somewhat light on context.

You're thinking of abnegating. It's actually setting a person free from guilt or sin.

I like Chris as a person (flaws and all) and think he’s right in what he says here and recognise that everyone is capable of changing their minds, but also would note that the executive’s undermining of the WT’s role already was underway whilst he filled the A-G’s office …

When kings (or wannabe kings) start dictating warship design based on what they think looks cool and powerful, the results can be … unfortunate.

Quarter grade! QUARTER GRADE!! I won the internet.

Aww ... real downer to end '25 on. His acting work in the Wire + Generation Kill was amazing. Just sucks that he doesn't seem to have been have been able to quiet the demons others created in him.

Worthy of 🍿🍿🍿!!!

From my Otago colleague Anna High - strong read recommend, especially for any MPs who happen to see this bleet!!!

"Laser-focused on delivery."

And they'd have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for the meddling High Court of New Zealand ...

Scattered reckons that horribly mixes metaphors ...

This question (regarding the inability to appeal electoral petition results) is a good excuse for retelling my favourite NZ politics story. Back at the 1978 election a bright-eyed and bushy tailed young tyro called Winston Raymond Peters contested the electorate of Hunua for the National Party. 🧵

🍿 (as @drdeanknight.bsky.social would put it)

I borrowed mine (thanks Maya!)

My cartoon in today's www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3609... They're selling us fixes to problems that don't exist and calling it a success. #NzPol #PoliticalCartoon #Caricature

It is very, very, very important to note that Julian Batchelor is neither racist nor prone to seeing fair-skinned, ginger-haired people where none exist ...

Chris Bishop: "I am reluctant to use urgency to avoid select committees outside of the standard Budget urgency process, and it is only done so when there are good reasons." 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Vanessa Smith-Glitenkamp deserves our respect and attention: “Aotearoa welcomed my family as immigrants. … I will not stand by quietly and enable behaviour that disrespects tangata whenua.”

This entire weekend

Bloody Auckland Law School … (Come and have a go if you think yer hard enough.)

Added my 2c worth to this regarding developments in AoNZ in 2024 ... it's at pp 228-231 for those interested, while the whole thing can be accessed for free at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... (There's some 80-other country reports to read ... cheap Xmas idea for any constitutional nerds you know!)

JUSTICE FOR TOBY!!! (Attn: @tobymanhire.bsky.social)

Just to be clear what is (and isn’t) happening here. The Govt MPs are empowering a select committee with a majority of its MPs on it to stuff more things into the government’s bill, because these things procedurally couldn’t be included in the bill when introduced.

When us process-heads warn about the importance of following systems and giving due weight to the how alongside the what, we have things like this in mind …

Legislative override (potentially retrospective) in 3 … 2 … 1 …

Strong recommend to this piece and the danger lurking in existing case law ... "Essentially, if widespread vote theft has taken place, the perpetrators may actually be saved by the sheer scale of their offending."

I haz reckons ...

Attn @thepost-nz.bsky.social … looks like the sort of thing you ought to investigate as the local newspaper, no?

Hey, so guess what I did? 🧵 Can I prove Deloitte used AI to write this report? No. But that would honestly be the less embarrassing option. The research in this report is below par for a 1st year undergrad, where they even bother to show research. Let's unpack some of the mistakes I found. #nzpol

There's a pretty high probability that this case is going to find that although "corrupt" practices took place in this election (stealing postal ballots and casting them without the voter knowing), because it can't be proven that this affected the result the election outcome must stand.

I think I've read this book before ...

This "process" is going to end with Trump being awarded the Netflix Oscar for Best President ...

The House's last sitting day is December 18 and it does not meet again until the last week of January (for just a week, before it breaks again for Waitangi Day). (I do not begrudge MPs this break - it's a hard, grinding job - but I also think everyone else should also have this time off.)

Off to the Australia New Zealand Legal Ethics Colloquium at Otago. A colloquium is like a conference except it’s worth more points in Scrabble.

This is pretty dodgy - looks like up to 2/3rds of the (thousands) of formal warnings issued by Police in the last 4 years were unlawful + so none of them will now be disclosed during police vetting procedures (because it's too hard to go through and weed out the unlawful ones).

I think we know where the creator of the FIFA "give Trump a golden bauble to make him happy" award got their inspiration.

"Confirmed to Stuff" via a formal judgment of the High Court of NZ which also was published on the Courts of NZ decisions of public interest ... but sure, your news organisation got the scoop 🙄

Let me just add to Eddie's comments that this decision shows why it is a good idea to get a lawyer to thoroughly check your party constitution to make sure that it is clear in its processes and explicit in what it allows various decision makers to do (and how they can do it).

Henry (@henrycooke.bsky.social) references a couple of past cases in this (very good) piece on the issue of what natural justice requirements apply to political party decisions. Worth noting the slightly different context for these precedents ...

This is ... quite the correction from Richard Harman in relation to his Politik newsletter.

It's interesting that this "controversial" proposal that is attracting so much heat in the UK (including criticism from government MPs/peers) as being an attack on constitutional fundamentals is pretty much the kite that our government flew last year with hardly any notice being paid ...

The Republicans have held this seat with a (so far) 13% swing against them. In 2024, 43 Republicans won their House seats by a margin of 15% or less. (Of course, results in an individual special election =/= those of all general midterm congressional elections, but a boy can dream?)

I share S.I.T.'s pain. Where is the political party devoted entirely to doing exactly everything I want the way I want it to be done, because I obviously am the only person in AoNZ with the One True Vision For The Future.

I'm surprised there's not more mention of the Irish Senate, which has a bunch of interesting facets that could adapted well into an AoNZ context

Counterpoint - those who say “we desperately need things to be different“ need a convincing story for how existing institutions subject to current incentives can provide that different practice …

Very glad that @tobymanhire.bsky.social recovered enough from his The Others Way revelries to write this up …

They’d have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those disgusting unions <sarc>

Come join us at @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social — applications are open for lecturer/senior lecturer roles at our law school. 🤓 ejye.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...